A groom was left heartbroken at the altar when he found out that his bride had been killed in a helicopter crash just a mile away from the venue.
Rosemere do Nascimento Silva, 32, had planned to surprise fiancé Udirley Damasceno and 300 guests by swooping into the reception via helicopter in a rural area on the outskirts of Sao Paulo, Brazil when the aircraft crashed, killing everyone on board, the Mirror reported.
The bride-to-be, Silva, her brother Silvano, wedding photographer Nayla Cristina Neves Lousada, who was six months pregnant, and helicopter pilot Peterson Pinheiro were killed in the crash, Metro reported.
Damasceno was waiting at the altar in front of 300 guests when he heard the news that his bride was killed.
“I called the pastor who was at the ceremony and he went with me to communicate to try to calm the groom,” Carlos Eduardo Batista, who helped organize the wedding, said to Brazillian news website Globo. “He was in shock. Then the other guests [about 300] knew and no one knew how to act. It was a tragedy.”
Police and air investigators are trying to figure out what caused the crash.
Reports say that the helicopter might have hit a tree during bad visibility with rain, fog, and clouds.
They only discovered the accident when they realized the helicopter did not arrive at a nearby football field.
Only six guests knew about the surprise, so guests thought the plane crash was unconnected to the wedding.
The helicopter, a Robinson 44, crashed about a mile from the wedding venue in a forest area near a main road.
Eight fire engines rushed to the scene, but arrived too late to save the passengers on board.
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