2024-08-10 10:31:46
vineyard. Brazilian authorities were working Saturday to determine the exact cause of a plane crash in Sao Paulo state the day before that killed all 61 people on board.
The aircraft, a twin-engine turboprop ATR 72-500 of local airline Voepass, was flying to Guarulhos International Airport in São Paulo with 57 passengers and 4 crew members on board when it crashed in the city of Vinedo .
Brazil falls to death
Video recorded by witnesses showed the plane spinning before crashing inside a gated residential complex. The fuselage was destroyed by the ensuing fire. Local residents said no one was injured at the scene.
It rained heavily as rescuers recovered the first bodies in the depths of the southern hemisphere winter. Some residents quietly left the community to spend the night elsewhere.
It is the deadliest air crash since January 2023, when a Yeti Airlines plane crashed while preparing to land, killing 72 people. That aircraft was also an ATR 72, and the final report attributed the accident to pilot error.
A report from Brazil’s Globo Weather Center on Friday said it “confirmed the possibility of ice formation in the Vinedo area,” and local media quoted experts as saying that ice may have been the cause of the accident.
On October 31, 1994, an American Eagle ATR 72-200 crashed. The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board determined that the possible cause of the accident was ice forming while the aircraft was circling for landing. The Federal Aviation Administration has issued operating guidance for ATRs and similar aircraft requiring pilots not to use the autopilot in icing conditions.
But Brazilian aviation expert Lito Sosa warned that weather conditions alone could not explain the crash.
“Analyzing a plane crash using only images may lead to incorrect conclusions about the cause of the accident,” Souza told The Associated Press by phone. “But we can see a plane that has lost lift, has no horizontal speed. “Here we can see a plane that has lost lift and has no horizontal speed. ” In this flat spin condition, it is impossible to regain control of the aircraft. “
black box
Sao Paulo Public Security Minister Guilherme de Riet told reporters on Friday that the plane’s black box – an orange device that records flight data and cockpit sounds – had been found and was apparently in good condition.
Voepass operations director Marcelo Moura told reporters in the evening that although icing was expected, it was still within acceptable levels for aircraft.
Likewise, Lieutenant Colonel Carlos Henrique Bardi of the Brazilian Air Force’s Aviation Accident Prevention and Research Center told reporters at a late afternoon press conference that it was too early to determine whether the accident was caused by ice.
Baldi, head of the agency’s research department, said the aircraft “is authorized to fly in severe ice and snow conditions in many countries, even in countries other than ours where the effects of ice and snow are more severe.”
The center noted in a previous statement that the pilot did not seek help or report adverse weather conditions. There was also no evidence they had tried to contact controllers at regional airports, Ports and Airports Minister Costa Filho told reporters in Vignedo on Friday night.
Brazil’s federal police said in a statement that it had launched its own investigation and had dispatched an aviation accident and victim identification expert to the area.
French-Italian manufacturer ATR said in a statement that it was aware of the accident involving an ATR 72-500 model aircraft and “fully supports the investigation and the customer.”
The ATR 72 is built by a joint venture between France’s Airbus and Italy’s Leonardo and is typically used for short-haul flights.
According to the Aviation Safety Network database, accidents involving the ATR 72 have resulted in 470 fatalities since the 1990s.
Brazilian authorities on Friday began moving bodies to morgues and asked families of victims to provide any possible medical, radiological and dental examinations to facilitate identification. Blood tests were also done.
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Sapesoa reported from Sao Paulo and Koenig reported from Dallas.
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