A passenger plane with 62 people on board crashed on Friday near São Paulo, Brazil, with no survivors reported.
The aircraft fell into the yard of a house, but did not damage any homes, and there were no injuries to people on the ground, according to officials.
Here’s what we know so far: The plane was en route to São Paulo.
VoePass Flight 2283 departed from Cascavel, in southern Brazil, at 11:46 a.m., heading towards Guarulhos airport near São Paulo. As it approached its destination, the plane’s transponder indicated a rapid descent from its cruising altitude of 17,000 feet. Flightradar24, a flight tracking service, reported that the plane was descending at a rate between 8,000 and 24,000 feet per minute for about a minute.
Officials noted that the pilots did not issue an emergency signal.
There were 89 seconds between the detection of the problem and the final data from the aircraft at 1:22 p.m. The crash occurred in Vinhedo, a small city northwest of São Paulo. Witness videos captured the plane spinning as it descended and a large plume of black smoke rising from the crash site.
One video showed significant damage, including a house on fire and debris scattered across the yard, with parts of the plane’s fuselage and cockpit visible.
The aircraft was an ATR 72.
The crashed plane was a 14-year-old ATR 72, a twin-engine turboprop. Brazilian authorities confirmed that it was compliant with local regulations. VoePass, a regional Brazilian airline, stated that all systems were functioning properly at the time of departure. Earlier on the same day, the same aircraft had flown from São Paulo to Cascavel.
ATR, a collaboration between Airbus and Leonardo, specializes in turboprop planes, with approximately 1,200 ATR aircraft in service worldwide as of March 2023.
The cause of the crash remains unknown.
Both the airline and Brazilian authorities are investigating the incident. Aviation safety experts advise against speculation before investigations are complete, which can take months or even years. In the past, icy conditions have been a factor in turboprop crashes, such as the 1994 ATR 72 crash in Indiana involving American Eagle, where inadequate ice protection was a contributing factor.
Flightradar24 reported that there was an active warning for severe icing in the area where the plane lost control, along with turbulence and thunderstorms.
All 62 people on board, including 58 passengers and four crew members, were killed. VoePass initially reported 61 fatalities but later corrected the number to 62, acknowledging a technical error that initially missed one passenger’s name.
