Brazil begins probe of plane crash that killed top court justice

SAO PAULO: Brazilian authorities on Friday started their investigation into a small plane crash that killed a Supreme Court justice who was overseeing the investigation of a political kickback scheme, the largest ever uncovered in the country.

A recovery team pulled the last two bodies from the wreckage of the accident that killed five people when the plane went down in heavy rain on Thursday afternoon just off the coast of Rio de Janeiro state.

The plane was carrying Supreme Court Justice Teori Zavascki, 68, along with his longtime friend who owned the aircraft, Alberto Filgueiras, 69, a boutique hotelier.

Maira Panas, a 23-year-old personal massage therapist for Filgueiras, and her mother Maria Panas, 55, were also aboard, along with the pilot Osmar Rodrigues, 56.Investigators are under pressure to quickly determine the cause of the crash, which has Brazilians abuzz with conspiracy theories.

Zavascki was expected to rule soon on the admissibility of dozens of plea bargains of executives from engineering group Odebrecht.