Five people were killed when a Bell 430 helicopter crashed in a wooded, mountainous area of the Brazilian state of Santa Catarina. Among them were Geraldo Antônio de Carvalho (59), known to audiences as Rick Solo of the duo Rick and Renner, and businessman Bruno Avelar (41), a close friend of footballer Neymar.

The flight took off from Porto Belo heading for São Joaquim. Contact was lost en route, and the aircraft was listed as missing for an entire day until it was found in a forest. The search involved around 40 firefighters, search dogs, drones, ten vehicles, members of the Brazilian Air Force and the Santa Catarina fire service's rescue helicopter "Arcanjo 03". The weather was working against them too: heavy rain, thick fog and strong gusts of wind that cut visibility to a minimum.

This is where the question that always follows such crashes begins. Brazil's National Civil Aviation Agency (ANAC) said the helicopter, built in 2001, had no recorded problems and was licensed to fly until 2027. On paper, then, everything was fine. The cause is not yet known and is under investigation. And when the paperwork is clean but the aircraft ends up in a forest, someone will have to explain what made the difference - the machine, the weather, or the decision to take off in those conditions.

Rick Solo started singing as a young man, and with Renner he reached the top in the 1990s with songs like "Ela é Demais". They sold millions of records and became one of the bigger names in sertanejo, Brazil's popular country-style music genre.

Avelar was involved in many business and charity projects connected to Neymar and his family. The footballer posted a video with him on Instagram and wrote: "At the moment I was able to return to Brazil, he helped me a lot... thank you. Rest in peace."

The other three victims were producer Paulo Soares, pilot Antônio Roberto Nóbrega de Araújo and co-pilot Leopoldo de Barros Teixeira. None of the five survived. Pilots rarely make the headlines, but it is precisely their last flight that the investigation will now have to reconstruct - minute by minute.