Rio de Janeiro:

An ATR-72 turboprop plane operated by regional carrier Voepass crashed on Friday in a residential area near Sao Paulo, Brazil, killing all 62 passengers aboard.

Investigators have recovered the plane’s so-called black box containing voice recordings and flight data, with a preliminary report expected within 30 days, the head of Brazil’s aviation accident investigation center, Cenipa, said on Sunday.

HOW DID THE CRASH OCCUR?

The plane was bound for Sao Paulo from Cascavel, in the state of Parana, and crashed at around 1:30 p.m. (1630 GMT) in Vinhedo, some 80 km (50 miles) northwest of Sao Paulo.

The aircraft was flying normally until 1:21 p.m., when it stopped responding to calls, and radar contact was lost at 1:22 p.m., Brazil’s air force said in a statement. The plane did not report any emergency.

Videos of the event show that the sky was apparently clear when the plane started spiraling in an unusual circling motion.

WHAT WILL EXPERTS BE LOOKING FOR?

US aviation safety expert Anthony Brickhouse said investigators would look at aspects like weather and examine to what extent the engines and controls were functioning properly, to help identify what caused the loss of control.

COULD WEATHER CONDITIONS HAVE CAUSED THE CRASH?

Videos of the crash analyzed by aviation experts led some to speculate that ice had built up on the plane. On Friday, Voepass said ice was predicted at the altitudes in which the plane was flying, but that it should have been within an acceptable level.

Brazilian aviation engineer and crash investigator Celso Faria de Souza said he is almost certain ice caused the accident, judging from the video.

ATR-72 planes have experienced issues with icing, with a crash in 1994 in the US state of Indiana killing 68, after the plane was unable to bank due to ice buildup. After that incident, manufacturer ATR improved its de-icing system. In 2016 in Norway an ATR-72 experienced issues after ice accumulated on the plane, but the pilot was able to regain control.

COULD THE ENGINE HAVE FAILED?

John Hansman, a professor in the department of aeronautics and astronautics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, reviewed some of the Brazil crash footage shared on social media and without having reviewed flight data said the crash did not appear to have been caused by weather.

It may have been an engine failure on one side, mismanaged by the crew, which would lead to the rotation downward, said Hansman.

ARE MULTIPLE POINTS OF FAILURE POSSIBLE?

Air crashes could be due to any number of factors, according to experts. Among them could be ice, engine failure or human error. In many instances there is more than one cause, said Robert A. Clifford, a lawyer who represented some of the families of crash victims in the 1994 accident.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Brazilian rescue teams Saturday (August 10, 2024) retrieved the remains of all 62 passengers from the wreckage of a plane crash in Sao Paulo state as families started gathering in the metropolis to identify and bury their loved ones.

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 passengers, then it revised the number to 61 and early on Saturday it raised the figure once again after it found a passenger named Constantino Thé Maia was not on its original list.

Voepass also said three passengers who held Brazilian identification also carried Venezuelan documents and one had Portuguese.

Sao Paulo state government said in a statement that rescue operations finished at 6:30 p.m. local time, with the identification of the bodies of the pilot and co-pilot by forensics experts. There were 34 male and 28 female bodies in the wreckage, the government said.

Earlier, Maycon Cristo, a spokesman for the local fire department, told journalists in Vinhedo that a winch was used to remove parts of the plane from the ground.

Brazilian authorities began transferring the corpses to the morgue Friday, and called on victims’ family members to bring any medical, X-ray and dental exams to help identify the bodies. Blood tests were also done to help identification efforts.

Images recorded by witnesses showed the aircraft in a flat spin and plunging vertically before smashing to the ground inside a gated community, and 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 in the chill of the Southern Hemisphere’s winter. Some residents of the gated community silently left to spend the night elsewhere. None were spotted returning on Saturday.

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, and the final report blamed pilot error.

Metsul, one of Brazil’s most renowned meteorological companies, said Friday there were reports of severe icing in Sao Paulo state around the time of the crash. Local media cited experts pointing to icing as a potential cause for the accident.

A video shared on social media channels Saturday shows a Voepass pilot telling passengers of a flight from Guarulhos to the city of Cascavel, the same origin of the crashed plane, that the ATR 72 has flown safely around the world for decades. He also asked passengers to be respectful to the memory of his colleagues and the company and asked for prayers.

“It was a fatality. The pilot was my personal friend. I have known all the crew from long ago,” the unidentified pilot said. “We are professionals, we have our families. This tragedy doesn’t hit only those who perished in this accident. It hits all of us. We are giving all our hearts, all our best to be here and fulfill our mission to take you safely and comfortably to your destination.”

Local police restricted access to the main entrance of one of Sao Paulo’s morgues, where bodies from the crash were being identified. Some family members of the victims arrived on foot, others came in minivans. They didn’t speak to journalists, and local authorities requested they not be filmed as they came.

A flight bringing more family members from Paraná state landed in the afternoon at Guarulhos international airport São Paulo, and they also chose not to speak to journalists. A minivan sponsored by the airline was set to transport them to the morgue.

Many family members were gathering at a hotel in downtown Sao Paulo, so far refusing to speak to media there too.

An American Eagle ATR 72-200 crashed on Oct. 31, 1994, and the United States National Transportation Safety Board determined that the probable cause was ice buildup while the plane was circling in a holding pattern. The plane rolled at about 8,000 feet and dove into the ground, killing all 68 people on board. The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration issued operating procedures for ATRs and similar planes, telling pilots not to use the autopilot in icing conditions.

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 told the AP by phone. “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.”

Brazil’s air force said Saturday both black boxes of the plane had been sent to its analysis laboratory in the capital Brasilia. The results of its investigations are expected to be published within 30 days, it said.

Marcelo Moura, director of operations for Voepass, told reporters Friday night that, while there were forecasts for ice, they were within acceptable levels for the aircraft.

Likewise, Lt. Col. Carlos Henrique Baldi of the Brazilian air force’s center for the investigation and prevention of air accidents, told reporters in a late afternoon press conference that it was still too early to confirm whether ice caused the crash.

The plane is “certified in several countries to fly in severe icing conditions, including in countries unlike ours, where the impact of ice is more significant,” said Baldi, who heads the center’s investigation division.

In an earlier statement, the center said the plane’s pilots did not call for help or say they were operating under adverse weather conditions. There has been no evidence that the pilots tried to contact controllers of regional airports, either, Ports and Airports Minister Silvio Costa Filho told reporters Friday night in Vinhedo.

Brazil’s Federal Police said it began its own investigation, and dispatched specialists in plane crashes and the identification of disaster victims.

French-Italian plane manufacturer ATR said in a statement that it had been informed that the accident involved its ATR 72-500 model, and that company specialists are “fully engaged to support both the investigation and the customer.”

The ATR 72 is generally used on shorter flights. The planes are built by a joint venture of Airbus in France and Italy’s Leonardo S.p.A.

Crashes involving various models of the ATR 72 have resulted in 470 deaths going back to the 1990s, according to a database of the Aviation Safety Network.

Costa Filho, the airports minister, said the 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.

Video footage showed the plane lying on a muddy dirt track with the front part of the aircraft in green foliage. Image for representation purpose only. File
| Photo Credit: Reuters

A small passenger plane crashed in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest Saturday, killing all 14 people on board, Amazonas state Governor Wilson Lima announced.

“I deeply regret the death of the 12 passengers and two crew members who were victims of the plane crash in Barcelos on Saturday,” Mr. Lima said on X, formerly known as Twitter.

The Embraer PT-SOG aircraft had taken off from Manaus, the Amazonas state capital and the biggest city in the Amazon, and was attempting to land in heavy rain when it crashed, local media reported.

The passengers were Brazilian tourists on their way to fish, the reports said.

Video footage posted by the Globo television network showed the plane lying on a muddy dirt track with the front part of the aircraft in green foliage. A couple of dozen people are seen standing nearby holding umbrellas.

The Brazilian Air Force sent a team from Manaus to collect information and preserve any evidence that could be used for the investigation into the crash, an air force statement said.

Rio De Janeiro:

Fourteen people were killed Saturday when a plane crashed in the Brazilian Amazon in the northern town of Barcelos, a popular tourist stop, the governor of Amazonas state said.

Twelve passengers and two crew were killed in the accident, Governor Wilson Lima wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Brazilian media reports said there were no survivors of the crash.

State officials did not immediately respond to requests for further details.

News site G1 said the plane was an 18-passenger EMB-110, a twin-engine turboprop manufactured by Brazilian aircraft-maker Embraer.

It was reportedly on its way from the state capital, Manaus, to Barcelos, about a 90-minute flight.

Located on the Rio Negro, an Amazon tributary, it is bordered by several national parks and other protected areas.

News site UOL said the passengers were Brazilians traveling to the region for sport fishing, citing state security secretary Vinicius Almeida.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)