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According to experts, an air accident can be caused by any number of factors. (file)
Rio de Janeiro:
An ATR-72 turboprop plane operated by regional carrier Voepass crashed in a residential area near the Brazilian city of Sao Paulo on Friday, killing all 62 passengers on board.
Cenepa, head of Brazil’s Aviation Accident Investigation Center, said Sunday that investigators had recovered the plane’s so-called black box containing voice recordings and flight data, with a preliminary report expected within 30 days. is
How did the crash happen?
The plane was en route from Cascaville, Parana state, to Sao Paulo, and crashed at 1:30 p.m. (1630 GMT) in Vinhedo, about 80 kilometers (50 miles) northwest of Sao Paulo.
The plane was flying normally until 1:21 p.m., when it stopped responding to calls, and lost radar contact at 1:22 p.m., the Brazilian air force said in a statement. The plane did not report any emergency.
Videos of the incident show that the sky was apparently clear when the plane started spiraling in an unusual circling motion.
What will experts be looking for?
Anthony Brickhouse, a U.S. aviation safety expert, said investigators will look at factors such as the weather and examine how well the engines and controls were working, to help determine whether the crash occurred. What causes loss of control?
Can weather conditions cause crashes?
Videos of the crash taken by aviation experts led some to speculate that ice had frozen on the plane. On Friday, Voepass said snow was forecast at the altitude the plane was flying, but it should have been within acceptable levels.
Brazilian aviation engineer and accident investigator Celso Faria de Souza said that judging from the video, he was almost certain the crash was caused by ice.
ATR-72 aircraft have had problems with icing, in a 1994 crash in the US state of Indiana that killed 68 people, when the aircraft was unable to bank due to an accumulation of ice. After this incident, manufacturer ATR improved its deicing system. In 2016, an ATR-72 in Norway experienced problems after ice accumulated on the plane, but the pilot was able to regain control.
Could the engine have failed?
John Hansman, a professor of aeronautics and astronautics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, reviewed some footage of the Brazil crash shared on social media and, without reviewing flight data, said it did not appear the crash was weather-related. is
Hansman said it could be an engine failure on the one hand, mismanaged by the crew, that would cause the rotation to go down.
Are multiple points of failure possible?
According to experts, air accidents can be caused by any number of factors. These may include ice, engine failure or human error. Robert A. Clifford, an attorney who represented some of the families of victims of the 1994 crash, said that in many instances there was more than one cause.
(Other than the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
