Brazilian authorities on Saturday completed recovering the our bodies of the 62 individuals who died when their aircraft tumbled from the sky, as consultants started inspecting the doomed plane’s black packing containers to find out the reason for the catastrophe.
Videos confirmed the ATR 72-500 aircraft in a sickening downward spin Friday earlier than it crashed right into a residential space within the city of Vinhedo, some 80 kilometres (50 miles) northwest of Brazil’s monetary capital Sao Paulo.
The aircraft operated by airline Voepass fell virtually vertically, landed on its stomach and exploded in flames, putting with such power that it was practically “flattened,” mentioned Sao Paulo fireplace lieutenant Olivia Perroni Cazo.
“A total of 62 bodies (34 male and 28 female) were recovered and taken to the morgue in Sao Paulo for identification and delivery to their families,” the regional authorities mentioned Saturday night.
Two have already been recognized by way of fingerprints, with Vinhedo Mayor Dario Pacheco saying they have been the pilot and co-pilot.
The twin-engine turboprop, constructed by aviation agency ATR, was flying from Cascavel in southern Parana state to Sao Paulo’s Guarulhos International Airport.
Experts from Brazil’s Aeronautical Accidents Investigation and Prevention Center (CENIPA) have begun analyzing two black packing containers recovered from the wreckage, containing cabin conversations and in-flight information, mentioned the middle’s chief, Marcelo Moreno.
It plans to publish a preliminary report “within an estimated 30 days,” the Brazilian Air Force mentioned.
According to the Flight Radar 24 web site, the aircraft flew for about an hour at 17,000 ft (5,180 meters), till 1:21 pm (1621 GMT) when it started dropping altitude at a catastrophic charge.
Radar contact was misplaced at 1:22 pm, the air power reported. It mentioned the aircraft’s crew “at no time declared an emergency or were under adverse weather conditions.”
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– ‘No technical problems’ –
ATR, a joint subsidiary of European big Airbus and Italy’s Leonardo, mentioned its consultants will help within the investigation.
The aircraft, in use since 2010, was in compliance with present requirements, the National Civil Aviation Agency mentioned, including that the 4 crew members have been all absolutely licensed.
Voepass’s operations director, Marcel Moura, mentioned the aircraft had undergone routine upkeep the evening earlier than the accident and that “no technical problems” have been discovered.
However, consultants recommended icing of the aircraft’s wings could have been behind the accident.
Moura mentioned the aircraft was a sort that flies at an altitude “where there is a greater sensitivity to icing,” however that situations Friday have been “within acceptable parameters for a flight.”
– National mourning –
The fiery crash remodeled the aircraft’s fuselage right into a mass of twisted metallic. Despite the devastation, there have been no casualties on the bottom.
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has declared three days of nationwide mourning for what was one of many worst aviation accidents within the nation’s historical past.
“It was horrible, horrible… such a sad tragedy,” mentioned a trembling Lourdes da Silva Astolfo, 67, whose house is barely yards (meters) from the crash website.
She instructed AFP she had first felt a “rumbling, almost like a tremor,” when she immediately noticed the aircraft virtually straight overhead. Seconds later got here the gorgeous influence and the horrified screams from neighbours as a thick cloud of acrid smoke billowed outward.
The usually peaceable, wooded enclave the place the aircraft got here down noticed a gradual stream Saturday of police vehicles, ambulances and firetrucks.
Voepass mentioned all of the victims have been travelling on Brazilian identification paperwork. One girl was a twin citizen of Portugal, and there was additionally a household of three Venezuelans.
It was the worst main air catastrophe in Brazil in 17 years.
In 2007, an Airbus A320 of Brazil’s TAM Airlines overran a runway at Sao Paulo’s Congonhas airport and crashed right into a warehouse, killing all 187 on board and 12 runway staff.
AFP