The crash of the twin-engine plane manufactured by Franco-Italian industry ATR was the worst aviation tragedy on Brazilian soil in 17 years.
The Voepass aircraft was flying from Cascavel, in the state of Paraná (south), to Guarulius International Airport in Sao Paulo.
It crashed in Vientiane, about 80 kilometers northwest of Sao Paulo, in the garden of a housing complex, killing all 4 crew members and 58 people on board.
Dramatic footage shot by locals and widely shared on social media shows the aircraft free-falling to the ground. The ATR 72 fell 4,000 meters in one minute.
Almost a month after the accident, a preliminary conclusion of the investigation carried out by the Brazilian competent authorities was presented. It notes that in a conversation recorded by the cockpit voice recorder, one of two so-called black boxes, “crew members spoke of a problem with the de-icing system” of the wings.
A minute before the aircraft began to lose altitude, the co-pilot was heard saying that “a lot of ice” had formed on the wings, Brazil’s center for investigation and prevention of aeronautical accidents (CENIPA) explained.
The finding also highlights that the flight was taking place in “extreme icing conditions”.
However, Marcelo Morenou, CENIPA executive, stressed during a press conference that it is still not possible to confirm that the accident was due to the problem of the de-icing system.
“It is still too early to determine the direction of the investigation” into the causes of the crash, he insisted.
According to Brazil’s civil aviation authority and CENIPA, the aircraft, which originally entered service in 2010, complied with all applicable regulations and had all required permits.
Voepass, founded in 1995, originally under the distinctive name Passaredo, has a fleet of 15 aircraft and has the fourth largest share of the Brazilian domestic flight market, according to the company itself.
The most recent major air tragedy in Brazil was in 2007, when an Airbus A320 of the Brazilian airline TAM skidded off the runway after landing at São Paulo’s Congonía Airport and crashed into a cargo warehouse, killing all 187 people on board and 12 other people on the ground.
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