Amazon jungle just minutes from landing at the industrial city of Manaus, aviation authorities said on Saturday. The propeller aircraft operated by Rico Linhas Aereas fell into dense jungle about nine miles from Manaus airport in northwest Amazonas state, 1,200 miles northwest of the capital, Brasilia. The turbo-prop, carrying 30 passengers and three crew, was on a normal approach in clear skies when it disappeared off the radar screen, Brazil's regional civil aviation service said. The airline said the passengers were all Brazilians over the age of 12. Rescue crews abandoned the search for survivors and wreckage along the banks of the Rio Negro River on Saturday after only finding scattered human remains and unidentifiable fragments of the aircraft. "They only found small wreckage. No survivors," a spokesman for Rico Linhas Aereas told national radio. The lack of any large pieces of wreckage indicated the plane exploded, the company spokesman said. A team of firefighters, federal police, navy and other units used a helicopter and a ship to search for bodies. The twin-engine plane lost contact with Manaus air traffic control around 6:30 p.m. as one plane touched down in front of it and another took position behind it,. Embraer, the world's fourth-largest civil aviation manufacturer, said it was sending technicians to the crash site to help determine the cause of the accident. In August 2002, a similar aircraft owned by Rico Linhas crashed near Rio Branco, the capital of northwest Acre state, killing 23 people. (Additional reporting Raquel Stenzel in Sao Paulo)