ATR 72 disaster in Brazil. Photo: Carla Carniel/ Reuters
Last week, an ATR 72 plane crashed tragically in Brazil, killing all 62 people on board. Authorities investigating the incident recovered the plane’s black box, but its data only deepened the mystery surrounding the causes of the tragedy. According to the Brazilian television Globo TV, citing sources in the investigation, the recordings from the cockpit did not give a clear explanation of the accident, Reuters reported.
Decoding of the voice recordings showed that a minute before impact with the ground, the crew noticed a sudden loss of altitude. The co-pilot asked the commander what was going on and offered to add thrust to stabilize the plane. However, the recorded conversations do not contain any signs of an emergency or reports of technical problems, which only increases the lack of understanding of the causes of the disaster.
ATR 72 belonged to the Brazilian airline Voepass and was flying from Cascavel to Sao Paulo. The plane crashed near the town of Vignedo, 80 kilometers northwest of Sao Paulo, at 1:30 p.m. local time. Although everyone on board died, no one on the ground was injured.
A video posted on social media immediately after the crash shows the plane falling uncontrollably to the ground. Despite this, the pilots did not report any problems to controllers.
The investigation continues, but investigators have not yet been able to establish the exact cause of the tragedy. Sources in the investigation team note that the recordings do not contain characteristic sounds that could indicate a fire, mechanical malfunctions or problems with the plane’s electronics. At the same time, the quality of the recording remains low, which also complicates the analysis.
One possible explanation is the accumulation of ice on the wings of the aircraft, but this is only an assumption that has yet to be confirmed. Cenipa, Brazil’s air accident investigation authority, declined to comment on the situation at this stage of the investigation.
