62 dead in Brazil Data secured – investigation into plane crash begins
12.08.2024, 00:11 Listen to article
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All technical records of the plane that crashed in Brazil have been secured. They are now being evaluated by investigators. So far there is only speculation about the cause of the accident. Complaints from passengers on a flight the day before are also being investigated.
After a passenger plane crashed in Brazil, investigators managed to secure the entire contents of the flight data recorder and voice recorder. “We have succeeded 100 percent in obtaining the voice and data information that was recorded in the moments before this tragic event for society,” said the head of the Center for the Investigation and Prevention of Aviation Accidents (Cenipa), Marcelo Moreno, to media representatives. All 62 people on board were killed in the accident near the Brazilian metropolis of São Paulo.
“The data has been collected and validated, and now we are waiting for our investigators (…) to start transforming this huge amount of data into useful information for society,” Moreno said. Both devices – each called a black box – were taken to Cenipa’s laboratory in the capital Brasília on Saturday for data analysis.
In addition, both engines of the plane will be analyzed in São Paulo to determine whether they were running at full power at the time of the crash, it said. The preliminary investigation report is to be presented within 30 days.
All bodies recovered
The plane belonging to the airline VoePass – an ATR 72 turboprop passenger aircraft – crashed into a residential area of the small town of Vinhedo shortly before reaching its destination on Friday afternoon (local time) on a flight from Cascavel in the state of Paraná to São Paulo. All 58 passengers and four crew members were killed – there were no injuries on the ground. Data from the Flightradar 24 platform suggest that the plane dropped almost 4,000 meters in altitude in less than a minute. Video footage showed the plane spinning in the air before it crashed into the property of a residential building and exploded.
According to the fire service, all the bodies had been recovered by Saturday evening (local time) – almost 30 hours after the accident. According to a “G1” report, the victims included a father and his three-year-old daughter who wanted to spend Father’s Day together, which was celebrated in Brazil on Sunday, as well as doctors, business people and professors. “I have nothing left, I have no life anymore,” said the mother of one of the victims, according to “O Globo”. According to the media, fraudsters took advantage of the situation by posing as the relatives of victims on the Internet in order to obtain donations.
Warnings of ice formation at the crash site
According to the Cenipa director, environmental and technical factors as well as possible human error are being investigated. According to the Flightradar 24 platform, meteorological reports for the period around the accident indicate turbulence, thunderstorms and icing in the area.
Experts are investigating the possible cause of the accident as being ice formation on the wings – this turns an aircraft into “a stone without lift,” wrote the Brazilian news portal UOL. According to the report, there was a warning about ice formation at the site of the crash. The managing director of VoePass, Eduardo Busch, also did not rule out the possibility that ice could have accumulated on the wings.
However, the pilots were experienced and the plane took off with functioning systems. “The plane was 100 percent operational at the time of takeoff,” said Busch. According to other experts, several causes could have led to the crash.
According to media reports, the day before the accident, the same plane was on a different route where passengers complained about problems with the air conditioning. According to “G1”, the public prosecutor’s office has announced that it will investigate the airline’s responsibility.
Bad memories of 2007
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva ordered three days of national mourning. According to media reports, the accident is one of the deadliest in the history of Brazilian aviation. In 2007, a plane belonging to the TAM airline overshot the runway at Congonhas Airport in São Paulo and crashed into a gas station – 199 people were killed.
Many also remember the crash on November 28, 2016, when the plane of the Brazilian football club Chapecoense crashed in Colombia on its way to Medellín for the first leg of the final of the Copa Sudamericana, the South American Cup. 71 people were killed, including almost all of the players, as well as support staff, coaches and journalists traveling with them. Six passengers survived.
The plane that crashed on Friday was an ATR 72 turboprop passenger aircraft belonging to the French-Italian consortium Avions de Transport Régional. In January 2023, 72 passengers, including four crew members, were killed when an ATR 72-500 crashed while approaching Pokhara airport in Nepal.
