The Cessna 175 went down beside the farm's runway in a rural part of Mato Grosso do Sul, about 141 kilometres from Campo Grande. Emergency teams travelled to the difficult-to-reach site, which authorities isolated for rescue work and investigation. The aircraft reportedly exploded after impact.
Initial local reporting suggested that the pilot may have attempted a go-around, abandoning a landing to climb again, before the plane lost altitude. That sequence had not been confirmed by investigators and the cause remained open. Brazil's Air Force was contacted, while state civil police units travelled to establish the circumstances.
Yu and the filmmakers were working on a documentary about “sponge cities,” according to friends of Ferraz and the production company involved. The concept, closely associated with Yu, uses landscape and nature-based systems to absorb, clean and reuse storm and river water rather than moving it rapidly through concrete drainage channels.
Yu was a professor at Peking University and director of the landscape-architecture firm Turenscape. His projects had been implemented in more than 70 cities, and he also served as a consultant to the Chinese government. He studied at Beijing Forestry University and earned a doctorate from Harvard University. Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva described him as a global reference whose work connected quality of life with environmental protection in an era of climate change.
Ferraz specialised in documentary and nonfiction work. His recent credits included the internationally recognised series *Dossiê Chapecó: O Jogo por Trás da Tragédia* and other architecture, art and sports productions. Crispim was a cinematographer, director and independent producer who had worked with broadcasters including Discovery, National Geographic and TV Globo and documented exhibitions at the Pinacoteca de São Paulo.
Barros owned and piloted the aircraft and was known locally for flights over the Pantanal and Serra da Bodoquena. The production company said the documentary flight was paid. Brazil's civil-aviation regulator, Anac, said the aircraft was not authorised to provide that type of commercial service, prompting police to investigate possible unlicensed air-taxi activity. That regulatory question was separate from the still-undetermined mechanical or operational cause of the crash.
The accident therefore ended both a journey and a collaborative project: an internationally prominent designer and two filmmakers documenting his response to urban flooding died alongside an experienced local pilot in the landscape they had travelled to record.
