Published: March 22, 2016 |

[Click image to enlarge]

A plane crash in Brazil has killed seven people including a former top executive of Brazilian mining giant Vale. Investigators are searching for the cause of the fatal accident that also injured a woman on the ground.

Authorities said that Roger Agnelli, the Brazilian banker who turned Vale SA into the world’s leading iron ore producer, was killed in a Saturday crash that also killed his wife, two children, their spouses and the pilot. A woman on the ground was also reportedly injured.

Authorities gave no reason why Agnelli’s Comp Air 9 turboprop airplane slammed into two houses around 3:20 p.m. local time (1820 UTC) Saturday shortly after takeoff from Campo de Marte airport in northern São Paulo.

Media reports said 56-year-old Agnelli was traveling to a wedding ceremony in Rio de Janeiro in clear weather.

Known as a strong personality, he reinforced a culture of meritocracy that helped make the company Brazil’s top exporter - transforming it from a relatively inefficient state enterprise to a lean corporate powerhouse.

“I get paid to produce results, and the results are there, aren’t they?” Agnelli told Valor Econômico newspaper in an interview in 2010.

That won him the respect of other business leaders.

“He was a visionary that corporate Brazil will miss badly,” said Lawrence Pih, former chief of the flour mill Grupo Pacífico SA, who sat on the board at the São Paulo Federation of Industries with Agnelli.

Source: (March 20, 2016) DW.com

Be in-the-know when you’re on-the-go!