Brazilian rescue groups on Saturday (August 10, 2024) recovered the stays of all 62 passengers from the wreckage of a airplane crash in Sao Paulo state as households started gathering within the metropolis to establish and bury their family members.
The airplane belonging to native airline Voepass, a twin-engine turboprop ATR 72, was heading to Sao Paulo’s worldwide airport in Guarulhos with 58 passengers and 4 crew members, when it crashed within the metropolis of Vinhedo.
The corporate initially stated its airplane had 62 passengers, then revised the quantity to 61 and early Saturday raised the determine once more after discovering {that a} passenger named Constantino Thé Maia was not on its unique checklist.
Voepass additionally stated three passengers who had Brazilian identification had been additionally carrying Venezuelan paperwork and one had Portuguese.
The Sao Paulo state authorities stated in a press release that rescue operations ended at 6:30 p.m. native time, with the identification of the our bodies of the pilot and co-pilot by forensic consultants. Among the many stays had been 34 male our bodies and 28 feminine our bodies, the federal government stated.
Earlier, Maycon Cristo, a spokesman for the native fireplace division, instructed reporters in Vinhedo {that a} winch was used to take away components of the airplane from the bottom.
Brazilian authorities started transporting the our bodies to the morgue on Friday and requested the victims’ kin to convey with them the medical, X-ray and dental checks wanted to assist establish the our bodies. Blood checks had been additionally carried out to assist with identification efforts.
Witness footage confirmed the airplane spinning and plummeting earlier than crashing into the bottom inside a gated group, leaving the fuselage in tatters. Residents stated there have been no accidents on the bottom.
Rain pelted rescuers as they retrieved the primary our bodies from the location within the chilly of a southern hemisphere winter. Some residents of the gated group quietly left to spend the night time elsewhere. None had been seen returning on Saturday.
It’s the world’s deadliest airplane crash since January 2023, when 72 individuals died aboard a Yeti Airways airplane in Nepal that stalled and crashed whereas on strategy to land. That airplane was additionally an ATR 72 and the ultimate report attributed the crash to pilot error.
Metsul, considered one of Brazil’s most famed meteorological firms, stated on Friday that there have been reviews of heavy ice formation in Sao Paulo state on the time of the crash. Native media cited consultants who pointed to ice formation as a attainable reason behind the accident.
A video shared on social media on Saturday exhibits a Voepass pilot telling passengers on a flight from Guarulhos to the town of Cascavel, the identical origin of the crashed airplane, that the ATR 72 has flown safely around the globe for many years. He additionally requested passengers to be respectful of the reminiscence of his colleagues and the corporate and requested for prayers.
“It was a fatality. The pilot was my private buddy. I’ve identified the complete crew for a very long time,” the unidentified pilot stated. “We’re professionals, now we have our households. This tragedy doesn’t have an effect on solely those that died on this accident. It impacts all of us. We’re giving our complete coronary heart, all our greatest to be right here and fulfill our mission to convey them safely and comfortably to their vacation spot.”
Native police restricted entry to the primary entrance of considered one of Sao Paulo’s morgues, the place our bodies from the accident had been being recognized. Among the victims’ kin arrived on foot, others in minivans. They didn’t converse to reporters and native authorities requested that they not be filmed as they arrived.
Within the afternoon, a flight landed at Guarulhos Worldwide Airport in São Paulo, bringing extra kin from Paraná, who additionally most popular to not converse to reporters. A minivan sponsored by the airline was able to take them to the morgue.
Many kin gathered at a resort in downtown Sao Paulo, refusing to date to talk to the media there as properly.
On October 31, 1994, an American Eagle ATR 72-200 crashed, with the U.S. Nationwide Transportation Security Board figuring out the possible trigger to be ice buildup whereas the plane was circling in a holding sample. The plane rolled over at about 8,000 toes and plunged to the bottom, killing all 68 individuals on board. The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration issued working procedures for ATRs and comparable plane instructing pilots to not use the autopilot in icing situations.
However Brazilian aviation knowledgeable Lito Sousa warned that climate situations alone won’t be sufficient to clarify why the airplane went down the best way it did on Friday.
“Analyzing an airplane crash solely with pictures can result in faulty conclusions concerning the causes,” Sousa instructed AP by cellphone. “However we are able to see a airplane with a lack of elevate, with no horizontal velocity. On this flat spin situation, there isn’t a technique to regain management of the airplane.”
The Brazilian Air Pressure stated Saturday that the airplane’s two black bins had been despatched to its evaluation laboratory within the capital, Brasilia. The outcomes of its investigations are anticipated to be printed inside 30 days, it added.
Marcelo Moura, Voepass’s chief working officer, instructed reporters late Friday that whereas there have been forecasts for ice, it was inside acceptable ranges for the plane.
Likewise, Lieutenant Colonel Carlos Henrique Baldi, of the Brazilian Air Pressure’s air accident prevention and investigation middle, instructed reporters at a late afternoon information convention that it was nonetheless too early to verify whether or not ice brought on the crash.
The plane is “licensed in a number of international locations to fly in extreme icing situations, even in international locations apart from ours, the place the influence of ice is extra vital,” defined Baldi, who heads the middle’s analysis division.
In an earlier assertion, the middle stated the airplane’s pilots didn’t name for assist or say they had been working in opposed climate situations. There may be additionally no proof that the pilots tried to speak with controllers at regional airports, Ports and Airports Minister Silvio Costa Filho instructed reporters Friday night in Vinhedo.
Brazil’s Federal Police stated it had launched its personal investigation and despatched specialists in air accidents and sufferer identification.
Franco-Italian plane producer ATR stated in a press release it had been knowledgeable that the accident concerned its ATR 72-500 mannequin and that the corporate’s specialists had been “totally engaged to assist each the investigation and the shopper.”
The ATR 72 is mostly used for short-haul flights. The plane are constructed by a three way partnership between Airbus in France and Leonardo SpA of Italy.
Accidents involving varied fashions of the ATR 72 have brought on 470 deaths because the Nineties, based on an Aviation Security Community database.
Airports Minister Costa Filho stated the Air Pressure middle can even conduct a legal investigation into the accident.
“We’ll examine in order that this case is totally defined to the Brazilian individuals,” he stated.
