Brazilian authorities worked Saturday to piece together what exactly caused the plane crash in Sao Paulo state the previous day that killed all 62 people on board. Local airline Voepass' plane, an ATR 72 twin-engine turboprop, was headed for Sao Paulo's international airport in Guarulhos with 58 passengers and four crew members when it went down in the city of Vinhedo. Initially, the company said its plane had 62 people on board, then it revised the number to 61. Early on Saturday it raised the figure once again after it found a passenger not on its original list, per the AP. Images and video captured by witnesses showed the aircraft in a flat spin and plunging vertically before smashing to the ground inside a gated community, leaving an obliterated fuselage consumed by fire. Residents said there were no injuries on the ground.
Rain drizzled down on rescue workers as they recovered the first bodies from the scene. Sao Paulo state government said Saturday morning that 21 bodies had been retrieved, with two already IDed. It was the world's deadliest airline crash since January 2023, when 72 people died on board a Yeti Airlines plane in Nepal that stalled and crashed while making its landing approach. That plane also was an ATR 72; the final report blamed pilot error. A report Friday from Brazilian television network Globo's meteorological center said it "confirmed the possibility of the formation of ice in the region of Vinhedo," and local media cited experts pointing to icing as a potential cause for Friday's crash. But Brazilian aviation expert Lito Sousa cautioned that meteorological conditions alone might not be enough to explain why the plane fell in the manner that it did on Friday.
"Analyzing an air crash just with images can lead to wrong conclusions about the causes," Sousa said. "But we can see a plane with loss of support, no horizontal speed. In this flat spin condition, there's no way to reclaim control of the plane." Sao Paulo Public Security Secretary Guilherme Derrite said the plane's black box had been recovered, apparently in a preserved state. Meanwhile, Marcelo Moura, Voepass' director of operations, told reporters Friday night that, while there were forecasts for ice, they were within acceptable levels for the aircraft. Costa Filho, the airports minister, said the nation's air force's center will also conduct a criminal probe of the accident. "We will investigate so this case is fully explained to the Brazilian people," he said. More here.
(More
plane crash stories.)
,
uBlock 
,
and
Ghostery 
)
