A small plane crashed into the ocean near Rio de Janeiro in Brazil on Thursday, killing three people, according to local media.

One of those on board appears to be Teori Zavascki, the Supreme Court Justice overseeing the country's sweeping probe into the corruption ring at national oil company, Petrobras.

The plane had left Sao Paulo and was travelling to Paraty, in the state of Rio de Janeiro, but crashed on the way around 1:30 pm.

In a statement, Brazil's Center of Investigation and Prevention of Aircraft Accidents (Cenipa) said that rescue teams had attended the scene of the crash of the plane, registered PR-SOM, and belonging to Carlos Alberto Filgueiras, owner of the Emiliano Hotel in Sao Paulo.

A later report by the local firefighter corps said that the plane had been found, and that three bodies had been recovered but not identified.

The Supreme Court separately confirmed that Zavascki's name was on the passenger manifest for the flight and that President Michel Temer had been informed.

source: Xinhua