On Friday, August 9, an ATR-72 plane with several dozen people on board crashed in Brazil. The plane went into a spin and crashed into a house in the town of Vinhedo. No one survived. Aviation experts began to wonder whether the plane's skin had iced over or whether it had failed engines – Reuters reports. Investigators say it is too early to determine the cause of the accident.
Plane crash in Brazil. This model had problems with ice on the skin
Icing was expected at the cruising altitude of the flight, but within acceptable limits, Marcel Moura, chief operating officer of Voepass, the airline that organized the flight, told the conference. “But this aircraft is sensitive to ice, that could be a starting point,” Moura continued, adding that the aircraft's de-icing system, along with all others, had been deemed operational before takeoff.
Brazilian aerospace engineer and crash researcher Celso Faria de Souza told Reuters that ice build-up could indeed have caused the plane to rotate in the way it did. It would not be the first time an ATR-72 has crashed due to ice build-up. In 1994, the same model failed to turn due to icy conditions and crashed with 68 passengers on board. Another ATR-72 in 2016 in Norway also stalled, but the pilot eventually regained control. The same model crashed in 2023 in Nepal, but it was ultimately determined to be pilot error.
U.S. aviation safety expert Anthony Brickhouse said investigators would look at issues such as weather and whether the engines and controls were operating properly before the crash. “From what I saw, it was definitely what we would call a loss of control,” he said.
Plane crashes in Brazil, no survivors
The plane crash occurred on August 9 at 13:25 local time (i.e. 18:25 in Poland) in the town of Vinhedo. According to Reuters, there could have been 68 passengers on board. It is known that there were 62 that day. As specified by CNN Brazil, 58 of them were passengers, the remaining four were crew members.
A video of the crash has been shared online. It shows the plane crashing behind trees. According to witnesses, the plane went into a spin, hit the ground near a housing estate and exploded. One of the houses was destroyed, but none of its residents were hurt. The twin-engine, turboprop ATR-72 plane of the local airline Voepass was flying from Cascavel in the state of Parana to Guarulhos airport near Sao Paulo.