Brazilian authorities worked Saturday, August 10, to piece together what exactly caused a plane crash in Sao Paulo state the previous day that killed everyone on board. Rescue teams took dozens of bodies from the wreckage and families started gathering to identify their remains.
Initially, Voepass airline said its plane had 62 passengers, then it revised the number to 61 and early on Saturday it raised the figure once again after it found a passenger named Constantino Thé Maia was not on its original list. The company also said three passengers who held Brazilian identification also carried Venezuelan documents and one had Portuguese.
Sao Paulo state government said in a statement that as of Saturday afternoon, 50 bodies had been removed from the wreckage, and two had been identified by forensics experts. Earlier, Maycon Cristo, a spokesman for the local fire department, told journalists in Vinhedo that a winch is being used to remove parts of the plane's carcass from the ground. "As we see a possible body in the middle of the destruction of the plane, rescue teams come in. Then they take pictures, gather as much evidence from the victim as they can so the identification can be the most accurate," Cristo said.
Brazilian authorities began transferring the corpses to the morgue on Friday and called on victims' family members to bring any medical, X-ray, and dental exams to help identify the bodies. Blood tests were also done to help identification efforts.
Images recorded by witnesses showed the aircraft in a flat spin and plunging vertically before smashing to the ground inside a gated community and leaving an obliterated fuselage consumed by fire. Residents said there were no injuries on the ground.
It was the world's deadliest airline crash since January 2023, when 72 people died on board a Yeti Airlines plane in Nepal that stalled and crashed while making its landing approach. That plane also was an ATR 72, and the final report blamed pilot error.
Metsul, one of Brazil's most renowned meteorological companies, said Friday there were reports of severe icing in Sao Paulo state around the time of the crash. Local media cited experts pointing to icing as a potential cause for the accident. But Brazilian aviation expert Lito Sousa cautioned that meteorological conditions alone might not be enough to explain why the plane fell in the manner that it did on Friday. "Analyzing an air crash just with images can lead to wrong conclusions about the causes," Sousa said. "But we can see a plane with loss of support, no horizontal speed. In this flat spin condition, there's no way to reclaim control of the plane."
Brazil's air force said Saturday both black boxes of the plane had been sent to its analysis laboratory in the capital Brasilia. The results of its investigations are expected to be published within 30 days, it said.
In an earlier statement, the center said the plane's pilots did not call for help or say they were operating under adverse weather conditions. There has been no evidence that the pilots tried to contact controllers of regional airports, either, Ports and Airports Minister Silvio Costa Filho told reporters Friday night in Vinhedo.