Crews search for survivors in Brazilian plane crash

 Brazilian rescue teams braved strong currents Sunday looking for survivors of a plane that crashed a day earlier into a river in the Amazon.

Four passengers who were aboard the Brazilian-made Bandeirante turboprop have been found, according to the plane's operator Manaus Aerotaxi.

Brazil's Folha de Sao Paulo, a national daily, said rescue teams recovered six bodies so far. One 9-year-old child was among the survivors, the newspaper said.

According to Manaus Aeorotaxi's passenger list, the plane was carrying 17 adults, seven children and two crew members, local media reported.

Authorities said the plane took off Saturday from Coari, about 225 miles (362 kilometers) southwest of Manaus, and fell into the Manacapuru river, a tributary of the Amazon River.

Civil Defense Coordinator Daniel Guedes told O Coariense, a local Coari newspaper, that the plane was trying to make an emergency landing on a make-shift landing strip.

"The survivors said they saw one of the plane's motors shut down. We thought he would try to land on a deactivated landing strip but he couldn't make it," said Guedes.

"The circumstances and causes of the accident are still not known and are being investigated by authorities," Manaus Aerotaxi said in a statement.

O Coariense also reported that the plane was hired by family members of a known businessman, Omar Melo, and they intended to surprise him on his birthday on Saturday.