Four Dead in a Rio Scenic Helicopter Crash: Sofia Murillo, 17, Her Mother Wendy Manrique, Her Grandmother Rocío Cubillos, and Pilot Alessandro Rocha

Saturday morning, August 8, 2026. A Robinson R44, prefix PP-MFS, left Jacarepaguá Airport on a short tourist hop — Christ the Redeemer and the postcard line over the city — operated by Voo Rio Panorâmico / Voos Rio Panorâmicos e Serviços Aeronáuticos (VRP). It went down in closed forest in Floresta da Tijuca near Vista Chinesa, Alto da Boa Vista, South Zone. Fire after impact. All four people on board died at the scene.

Brazilian Air Force investigators (CENIPA) and Civil Police opened the usual dual track. No public finding on cause belongs in this piece. The company told CNN Brasil it was still gathering information.

Who was on the first flight

The Manrique family had come from Colombia as six: a vacation that doubled as a celebration of 15 years for Laura Manrique. The R44 takes three passengers. They split.

First lift, about 10:40–11:00 a.m. depending on the desk:

- Sofia Murillo, 17

- Wendy Manrique, 37, her mother

- Rocío Cubillos, 59, her grandmother

- Alessandro Rocha, the pilot

Victor Manrique — Wendy’s brother, Sofia’s uncle — waited at the hangar with his wife and their 15-year-old daughter for the second pass. He had been messaging the first group while they were still in the air. He learned the rest from news at the airport. On Sunday he wrote that he had lost half his family. He thanked God they had seen Brazil. He said he would love his little sister, his mother, and his niece in this life and the next.

Sofia’s father reached Rio on Sunday. To G1: this trip was one of her dreams, to know Brazil. The bodies went to the IML. Identification was slow; she was carrying documents. Colombia’s consulate sent an interpreter. Rocha was to be buried in São Gonçalo.

The girl the internet already knew

Sofia made makeup, hair, and skin videos. Brazilian outlets put her following in the 200,000–250,000 range and likes in the millions. That is why her name led some headlines. It is not why the helicopter fell. She was 17, on holiday with her mother and grandmother, sitting in a three-seat tour that a lot of families book because the statue is in the sky. Treat her as a daughter first.

The hill

Remote woods. Fire crews and military support for the vegetation fire. Access hard enough that crews used a tyrolean line to bring people out. Relatives who were supposed to be on the next twenty minutes stood on pavement and watched a story they were still waiting to board.

What this is not

It is not a closed accident report. It is not a brand story. It is four people who left a hangar to look at a statue and did not come back, and three people who were going to look at the same statue after them. CENIPA will write the technical page. The family is already writing the other one.

If you followed her for a contour tutorial, sit with that for a minute and then leave the wreckage alone. Wendy, Rocío, Sofia, Alessandro. A split booking. A hillside. A father who said Brazil was the dream. That is the article.