Voepass Flight 2283: Difference between revisions

Flight path of Voepass Linhas Aéreas Flight 2283 (map data)

On 9 August 2024, Voepass Linhas Aéreas Flight 2283, an ATR-72-500 flying a scheduled domestic Brazilian passenger flight from Cascavel to Guarulhos with 58 passengers and 4 crew members on board, crashed in Vinhedo, São Paulo, after entering what appeared to be a flat spin.^[1][2] The aircraft was flying at an altitude of 17,000 ft (5,200 m) when it spun out of control and entered a rapid descent at around 13:22 BRT. All 62 occupants on board were killed. It was the first fatal aviation accident in Brazilian commercial aviation since the 2011 crash of Noar Linhas Aéreas Flight 4896, and the first fatal aviation accident involving Voepass Linhas Aéreas since its establishment in 1995.^[3][4] The crash is also the deadliest aviation accident in Brazil since TAM Airlines Flight 3054 in July 2007.^[5]

The aircraft involved, registered as PS-VPB, was a 14-year-old twin-engine turboprop ATR 72-500 with serial number 908, powered by two Pratt & Whitney Canada PW127M engines.^[6][7][8] It was acquired by Voepass in September 2022 from Indonesian carrier Pelita Air Service.^[9]

The captain was Danilo Santos Romano, 35, the first officer was Humberto de Campos Alencar e Silva, 61,^[10] while the flight attendants were Débora Soper Ávila, 28,^[11] and Rubia Silva de Lima, 41.^[10][12] One passenger was Portuguese,^[13] while the remaining passengers and crew were Brazilian.^[14]

The aircraft was traveling from Cascavel in the state of Paraná to the city of São Paulo.^[14]

In the area of the crash, there was an active SIGMET advisory for severe icing from 12,000 to 21,000 feet (3,700 to 6,400 m).^[6][7][15] Meteorological reports at the time of the accident indicated that areas of turbulence, thunderstorms and icing were present in areas surrounding the accident.^[16] The Brazilian Air Force said in a statement that the flight did not declare an emergency.^[17]

According to Flightradar24, the aircraft was cruising at 17,000 feet (5,200 m) when, at 13:21 local time, the aircraft experienced a brief loss of altitude followed by the aircraft briefly gaining in altitude. Shortly thereafter the aircraft entered into a steep and terminal descent, with the last data transmission, along with the loss of radar contact, occurring at 13:22, before crashing. ADS-B data indicated that the aircraft had reached a maximum vertical descent rate of 24,000 feet (7,300 m) per minute.^[16][18][17]

Firefighters reported that the plane crashed in Vinhedo in the state of São Paulo,^[19] 76 kilometres (47 mi) northwest of the city of São Paulo.^[20] The plane crashed near a condominium in the Capela neighborhood in the municipality of Vinhedo.^[5] Despite earlier reports of several houses being hit by the plane,^[14] it crashed in the front yard of a house in a gated community, and nobody on the ground was killed or injured.^[21] Videos of the aircraft before it crashed showed it in a downward flat spin, in a slight nose-down orientation, and were widely shared on social media.^[14][20] Brazilian television news channel GloboNews interrupted Olympics coverage to broadcast from the area around the crash, showing fire and smoke rising from the plane fuselage.^[19][22][23] All 62 people on board the aircraft (58 passengers and 4 crew) were killed.^[24] At least 10 people had been unable to board the aircraft after having waited for the flight at the wrong airport gate.^[14] Most of the bodies found in the crash site were charred, making the identification of the victims difficult.^[25] An eyewitness reported seeing three bodies ejected from the plane and falling on a backyard.^[26]

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was attending an event in the south of the country when he received news of the crash, and requested a moment of silence at the event for those on board. Later that evening, he declared three days of national mourning in response to the crash.^[19]

The governor of São Paulo, Tarcísio de Freitas, and the governor of Paraná, Ratinho Júnior, announced that they would return from an event in Espírito Santo.^[27]

The Brazilian Aeronautical Accidents Investigation and Prevention Center (CENIPA) has launched an investigation into the crash.^[6] CENIPA's head, Marcelo Moreno, said on the day of the crash that both flight recorders – the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) and the flight data recorder (FDR) – had been recovered and were in CENIPA's possession.^[12][28] The bodies of the victims were taken to the Legal Medical Institute in Campinas for legal proceedings.^[14]

Aviation experts speculated that ice buildup could have been a factor in the crash, while stating that it was too soon to draw conclusions.^[29]

• Voepass Linhas Aéreas Flight 2283 Aviation Data – Flightradar24
• Linhas Aéreas Flight 2283 — Aviation Safety Network