The last words of the pilots of the doomed passenger jet that crashed in Brazil killing everyone on board have been revealed after the plane’s black box was found.
The discovery means investigators now have the ‘full transcript’ from the cockpit voice recorder of the Voepass Airlines plane that crashed last Friday.
The transcript indicates the pilot and copilot noticed a steep loss of altitude about one minute before the crash, local TV station Globo reported on Wednesday, citing unnamed people from the investigation.
The two-hour recording reveals the copilot asked the pilot ‘what is going on?’, and saying the plane needed ‘more power’ to be stabilized.
Brazil’s aviation accident investigation center, Cenipa, did not comment on the content of TV Globo’s report.
Captain Danilo Santos Romano was named as the first victim of the horror crash in the city of Vinhedo
The airline said 61 people were aboard the plane at the time of the crash. Video showed the aircraft spiraling out of the sky just before impact
The plane, an ATR-72 turboprop from local airline Voepass, was bound for Sao Paulo from Cascavel, in the southern state of Parana, and crashed at around 1.30pm local time in the town of Vinhedo.
The crash killed all on board but no one on the ground was hurt.
A video shared on social media after the accident showed the aircraft spinning out of control as it plunged down behind a cluster of trees near houses, sending a large plume of black smoke into the air.
Earlier this week it was revealed that a mysterious unaccounted-for passenger was aboard the plane.
Initially Voepass said the plane was carrying 57 passengers and four crew, but on Saturday the firm confirmed another unaccounted-for passenger had been on the flight, putting the number of casualties at 62 – it is unclear whether this additional passenger was simply missed off the manifest or whether they snuck on board.
For now, the cause of the crash remains unknown.
Metsul, one of Brazil’s most respected meteorological companies, said on Friday that there were reports of severe icing in Sao Paulo state around the time of the crash.
Local media cited experts pointing to that as a potential cause, although others cautioned against jumping to a conclusion, urging to wait for the outcome of the official investigation.
Liz Ibba dos Santos, a 3-year-old girl who was traveling with her father (pictured together), was the youngest passenger who died in the crash
An aerial view shows Brazilian forensics working in the site where a Voepass airline plane crashed, in Vinhedo, Brazil, 10 August 2024
Airports Minister Silvio Costa Filho said the center was also opening a criminal probe. The airline Voepass and the French-Italian ATR manufacturer are assisting investigations, they said in statements.
The aircraft was flying normally until 1.21pm, when it stopped responding to calls, and radar contact was lost at 1.22pm, Brazil’s air force said in a statement. The plane did not report any emergency.
Videos of the event show that the sky was apparently clear when the plane started spiraling in an unusual circling motion before crashing.
To find out the cause for the crash, investigators would look at aspects like weather and examine to what extent the engines and controls were functioning properly, according to US aviation safety expert Anthony Brickhouse.
Some aviation experts speculated that ice had built up on the plane after seeing a video of the spiraling aircraft.
On Friday, Voepass said ice was predicted at the altitudes in which the plane was flying, but that it should have been within an acceptable level.
Brazilian aviation engineer and crash investigator Celso Faria de Souza said he is almost certain ice caused the accident, judging from the video.
ATR-72 planes have experienced issues with icing, with a crash in 1994 in the U.S. state of Indiana killing 68, after the plane was unable to bank due to ice buildup.
After that incident, manufacturer ATR improved its de-icing system. In 2016 in Norway an ATR-72 experienced issues after ice accumulated on the plane, but the pilot was able to regain control.
The local firefighters corps confirmed that the Voepass plane fell in the city of Vinhedo, but did not offer more details
The VOEPASS flight was on its way from Cascavel to Guarulhos when it crashed
Video showed the smoking wreckage, which was near residential homes
Data from the flight tracker shows the plane lost 13,000 feet in elevation in under two minutes during the final moments of its ill-fated trip
John Hansman, a professor in the department of aeronautics and astronautics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, reviewed some of the Brazil crash footage shared on social media and without having reviewed flight data said the crash did not appear to have been caused by weather.
It may have been an engine failure on one side, mismanaged by the crew, which would lead to the rotation downward, said Hansman.
The search for the cause of the crash comes as the remains of all 34 male and 28 female victims were recovered on Saturday.
Authorities are using seat assignments, physical characteristics, documents and belongings such as cell phones to identify the victims, firefighter Maycon Cristo said at the crash site earlier on Saturday as the bodies were being pulled from the wreckage.
Liz Ibba dos Santos, a 3-year-old girl who was traveling with her father, was the youngest passenger who died in the crash.
Josgleidys Gonzalez, 29, her four-year-old son Joslan and her mother Maria Gladys Parra also died on Voepass Flight 2283 alongside their six-month-old dog Luna.
Sao Paulo’s morgue began receiving the bodies Friday evening, and it asked victims’ relatives to bring in medical, X-ray and dental records to help identify the bodies. Blood tests were also done to help identification efforts.
The bodies of the pilot, Danilo Santos Romano, and his co-pilot, Humberto de Campos Alencar e Silva, were the first to be identified.
Another 10 have been identified since, local authorities said. One body is already set for burial, and another seven are expected to follow on Sunday, Sao Paulo’s state government said.
Six leading oncologists and two resident medics, in their final year of training, were on their way from their home city of Cascavel to a cancer conference in Sao Paulo when the plane crashed
This photo shows an aerial view of the wreckage of an airplane that crashed with 61 people on board in Vinhedo, Sao Paulo State, Brazil, on August 10, 2024
Four professors at Unioeste university in western Paraná were confirmed dead. Eight cancer doctors were also among the passengers.
Six leading oncologists and two resident medics, in their final year of training, were on their way from their home city of Cascavel to a cancer conference in Sao Paulo when the twin-engine turboprop ATR 72-500 VoePass Airline flight crashed on Friday.
Eduardo Baptistella of the Regional Medical Council said: ‘Unfortunately we received very sad news and were able to confirm the death of eight doctors.
‘The doctors were going to an oncology conference. These were people who dedicated their lives to saving others.’
Some of the doctors’ names began to emerge Friday night including radiologist Leonel Ferreira, pediatric cancer expert Sarah Stella and Silvia Osaki.
Mr Baptistella said 15 doctors had been scheduled to take the two-hour doomed flight but seven had taken an earlier plane.
One of the doctors was Arianne Risso, who worked every day to help her patients battle cancer.
Risso’s cousin, Stephany Albuquerque, recalled in a phone interview that the two often played together when she was young.
Even then, Risso wanted to become a doctor and, as she grew older, applied herself so intensively to her studies that she rarely went out on the town. Medicine was her calling.
One of the doctors was Arianne Risso (pictured), who worked every day to help her patients battle cancer
Debris is pictured as emergency personnel work at the site of a plane crash on Friday
Risso, 34, was flying with her colleague Mariana Belim (pictured), 31. The two had been in residencies at Cascavel’s cancer hospital, and a statement from the institution praised them for the conscientiousness, care and respect with which they treated their patients.
‘Arianne treated people who were terminally ill at a time in their lives when they were struggling. But Arianne was always available and did everything with a lot of love,’ Albuquerque told AP by phone from Florida, where she now lives.
‘She wasn’t the kind of doctor who would the tell the patient, ‘This is your illness, take this.’ No, Arianne took care of people. … She would give out her personal phone number to patients.’
Risso, 34, was flying with her colleague Mariana Belim, 31. The two had been in residencies at Cascavel’s cancer hospital, and a statement from the institution praised them for the conscientiousness, care and respect with which they treated their patients.
‘It’s no wonder that praise for them both would often reach us. Their love of the profession was very clear,’ the hospital said.
Willian Rodrigo Feistler, a general practitioner who grew up in Cascavel, knew six people who died in the crash and was particularly close to Belim, with whom he studied and had maintained a 15-year friendship.
‘Mariana was serene with a melancholic temperament, but very intelligent, empathetic and devoted to her profession,’ Feistler said by phone from Cascavel. ‘She dedicated much of her life to studies and medical training.
She had already specialized in clinical medicine and was completing her specialization in clinical oncology.’
José Roberto Leonel Ferreira, a recently retired doctor who also died in the fiery wreck, was one of Feistler’s teachers during his undergraduate studies. He had a radiology clinic in Cascavel.
Adriano Assis told Brazilian news outlet G1 that he was not allowed to board Voepass Airliness flight 2283 because he had arrived late at the gate
A passenger revealed that he along with three friends are among the 10 people who went to the wrong gate at Cascavel Regional Airport and missed getting on Voepass Airlines flight 2283
Voepass Airlines flight 2283 crashed behind a condominium in Vinhedo, a city in the southeastern Brazilian state of São Paulo on Friday
‘I went over cases with him on several occasions. He was a receptive person who helped other doctors in the discussion of cases to reach diagnoses,’ Feistler said.
Brazil’s Federal Council of Medicine said the loss of the doctors left Brazil’s medical world in mourning, and expressed its solidarity for the victims’ friends and relatives.
They were venturing forth from Cascavel in search of knowledge as a means to better treat their patients, its statement said.
After footage of the devastating plane crash emerged, several people came forward saying they were supposed to be on the plane and could have been dead if they didn’t miss their flight.
Adriano Assis had finished his shift at a hospital and was running late to catch the 11.56am flight at Cascavel Regional Airport in Cascavel, Paraná to São Paulo/Guarulhos International Airport in São Paulo.
Assis told Brazilian news outlet G1 that he made it to the counter at 9.40am and noticed that there were no agents.
He stood nearby and had a coffee while constantly looking at the departure and arrival screen to see if there was any information available for flight 2283.
‘When I decided it was already 10.30am, there was a huge line here,’ he recalled. ‘I waited until it was 10.40am or so. The guy said I wouldn’t be boarding anymore because it was an hour before boarding.’
Assis said that he pleaded with the agent to allow to board his return flight to São Paulo.
‘At that moment, I argued with him and stuff, and that was it, and he saved my life, man,’ he said. ‘He did his job because… if he hadn’t done it… maybe I wouldn’t be in this interview today, sorry.’
Another young man told the outlet that he and three friends were among 10 passengers who were waiting by the wrong gate and unable to board the flight.
‘When it was 11 o’clock, I came looking here. When I looked I said, ‘Man, you’re not getting on that plane anymore’,’ he recalled.
He attempted to persuade one of the gate agents into allowing him inside the plane, but his tactics didn’t work.
‘I said, ‘Girl, put me on this plane, I have to go, I have to go’,’ he said. ‘She said, ‘No …What I can do for you is reschedule your flight.’ So, she rescheduled it for 6.20pm.’