Brazilian authorities continued to work hard on Saturday to clarify the exact cause of the Voepass local airline plane crashin which 61 people died on their way from Cascavel -state of Paraná- to São Paulo. The plane crashed in the city of Vinhedo and the images of the abrupt fall were shocking.
Icing It is one of the hypotheses that was gaining strength as the hours passed. The aircraft went into a tailspin -in a spiral – before crashing to the ground inside a gated residential community. It was 3,500 meters in just one minute. Therefore, the possible formation of ice on the wings It would explain its abrupt fall, vertically and spinning around itself.
Local media cited experts who pointed to ice formation as a possible cause of the accident.
“Ice was expected to form in the accident area. It is possible that ice may have formed ice on the wing of the plane and the de-icing system, for some reason, did not work. As a result, the plane lost support and fell as seen in the videos,” he told The Globe Aeronautical engineer Celo Faria de Souza, a criminal expert in aeronautical accidents and director of the Brazilian Association of Flight Safety (Abravoo).
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The president led an event with businessmen a few minutes after the tragedy.
The fact that the aircraft’s structure remained intact, with no damage to the wing area, reinforces this theory, he said. “If I had to bet on the possible reason for the crash, I would say that there is a 95% chance that this caused the fall,” he said.
Aerial image of the remains of the fuselage of the Voepass airline plane that crashed in the city of Vinhedo. Photo: EFE
Ice buildup on the wings causes air to escape from the top, preventing the plane from flying. In this case, when the aircraft stops flying, it begins a rotational spiral downward movement, as occurred in the accident.
The Brazilian media also revealed that another pilot of an Airbus A320 who also flew yesterday to Guarulhos reported that he was training Ice on the side window of the cabinsomething uncommon.
All 61 people on board the ATR 72-500 were killed. Photo: AP
In fact, weather conditions, with ice forming in the area where the plane lost control, are believed to have been a contributing factor to the accident.
Sao Paulo Public Security Secretary Guilherme Derrite said he had recovered the black box of the plane – an orange device that records flight data and cockpit voices – and was apparently in good condition.
Debris as emergency personnel work at the scene. Photo: Reuters / Juninho Giugni via Instagram.
When an American Eagle ATR 72-200 crashed on October 31, 1994, the National Transportation Safety Board determined that the probable cause of the crash was icing while the aircraft was circling while waiting to land.
The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration issued operational guidelines for ATRs and similar aircraft asking pilots not to use autopilot in icing conditions.
The main hypothesis of the accident in Brazil also recalled the tragedy of Sol in Argentina. It happened in May 2011, when a Saab 340A flying south over the territory of Río Negro, heading to Comodoro Rivadavia, asked the control tower for permission to descend, apparently because it was suffering from ice formation on its wings or on one of its two turboprops.
This is what the area where the plane crashed in the Sol tragedy looked like.
Ten minutes later, the last contact was made. Sol Líneas Aéreas flight 5428 – which ceased operations in January 2016 – crashed in the Prahuaniyeu area, an accident in which 22 people died (19 passengers and three crew members).
Air tragedy in Brazil: communication failed
The pilots They did not ask for help or report adverse weather conditions.There was also no evidence that they had tried to contact regional airport controllers, said Ports and Airports Minister Costa Filho.
The aircraft, a twin-engine ATR 72-500 turboprop, was heading to Guarulhos International Airport in Sao Paulo with 57 passengers and four crew when it crashed in the city of Vinhedo.
Images recorded by witnesses showed how the plane went into a tailspin before crashing into the ground inside a gated community. The fuselage was consumed by the ensuing fire. Residents said there were no injuries on the ground.
Rain fell on rescuers as they recovered the first bodies in the middle of winter in the southern hemisphere. Some residents quietly left the community to spend the night elsewhere.
It was the deadliest air accident since January 2023, when 72 people died aboard a Yeti Airlines plane in Nepal that crashed while approaching landing. That plane was also an ATR 72, and the final report attributed the crash to pilot error.
