Witnesses have described their horror at watching a plane ‘fall out of the sky and explode’ in Brazil on Friday – as experts scramble to make sense of what happened.
Dramatic video showed the moment a Voepass Airlines plane came spiralling down over populated areas before crashing behind a cluster of trees, near homes.
‘I almost believe the pilot tried to avoid a nearby neighbourhood, which is densely populated,’ Daniel de Lima, a resident of Vinhedo near the crash site, told Reuters.
All 61 people on board have been reported dead, though relatives are still waiting for confirmation of the fate of their loved ones.
Voepass has since revealed that all those on board – including 57 passengers and four crew – were carrying Brazilian-issued documents.
Some of the passengers were doctors from Parana heading to a seminar, Governor Ratinho Junior told reporters.
‘These were people who were used to saving lives, and now they’ve lost theirs in such tragic circumstances,’ he said.
A top aviation expert has revealed the most likely causes behind the ‘death spiral’ of a Brazil passenger jet that killed all 61 passengers onboard
Residents heard a loud noise before the plane crashed near a residential area on Friday
Officials later confirmed all 61 on board – 57 passengers and 4 crew – had died in the crash
Daniel de Lima said he heard a loud noise on Friday before looking outside his condo and seeing the plane in a horizontal spiral.
‘It was rotating, but it wasn’t moving forward,’ he told Reuters. ‘Soon after it fell out of the sky and exploded.’
‘When I heard the sound of the plane falling, I looked out my window at home and saw the moment it crashed,’ witness Felipe Magalhaes told Reuters.
‘Terrified and not knowing what to do, I jumped over the wall,’ he said.
The plane was on its way from Cascavel to Guarulhos cruising at 17,000 feet when it began the sudden descent.
Brazil’s Civil Defense says the plane struck several houses within the residential area, CNN Brasil reported.
Sao Paulo federal police told ABC that one resident was injured following the impact.
Nathalie Cicari, another resident, said she was having lunch when she heard a ‘very loud noise nearby’.
She said it sound like a drone but ‘much louder’, heading to the balcony to see the plane spiralling.
‘Within seconds, I realised that it was not a normal movement for a plane.’
Natalia said she had to evacuate her house, filling with thick black smoke after the crash.
Another witness called Pietro told Reuters he had seen ‘a lot of people’ breaking into a condominium ‘to make videos’.
‘What I saw was the wreckage of the plane, all that was left was the cabin,’ he said.
Captain Ross Aimer said that the plane could have experienced engine failure, flight control malfunction, or if a critical part of the aircraft fell off
Video footage showed devastation to a populated area after the plane crashed
Debris is pictured as emergency personnel work at the site of a plane crash on Friday
Rescuers arrive at the Voepass Airlines Twin Engine ATR-72-500 crash site on August 9
Experts have begun trying to make sense of what could have happened, with confirmation yet to be announced.
The plane’s black box was reported to have been found in the early hours of this morning, and federal police have started an investigation, saying it is currently too early to determine the cause of the crash.
One top aviation expert told MailOnline that the plane could have experience engine failure, flight control malfunction, or a critical part of the aircraft falling off.
And once you enter the death spiral, ‘it’s very hard to get out of it,’ Captain Ross Aimer, who has over 40 years of experience flying passenger jets in the US, said.
Aimer said the most likely cause of the crash was that the aircraft suffered a low speed stall – when the airflow over the wings is too slow to provide enough lift.
This happens when planes move too slowly. The three reasons this happens are either a technical fault, extreme turbulence, pilot error or something hitting the wing, like a bird.
Famously the US Airways Flight 1549 crashed landed on the Hudson river after a flock of birds struck its wing and shut off all power shortly after take off, at around 700 feet.
The ATR-72 aircraft that crashed in Vinhedo, Brazil, was cruising at 17,000 feet, the airline said.
At that height, it was unlikely to be a bird.
After the plane likely stalled, video showed it spinning in circles as it crashed back down to earth.
This is known as a death spiral, or graveyard spin.
When the wing stalls and dips, and there is no power because the engine has turned off, the plane can go into a spiral where one wing is generating lift while the plane rotates around the other right into the ground.
Others have speculated that ice could have built up on the plane.
‘Today ice was predicted (at the altitudes the plane was flying at), but within the acceptable range,’ Voepass Chief Operations Officer Marcel Moura told a press conference.
‘But the plane is sensitive to ice, that could be a starting point,’ Moura said, adding the plane’s de-icing system, along with all other systems, had been deemed operational before takeoff.
A dramatic video from the scene on Friday showed a Voepass plane falling from the sky as it plummeted behind a cluster of trees near houses, followed by a large plume of black smoke
Aerial view of the wreckage of an airplane that crashed with 61 people on board in Vinhedo
A police officer is seen in front of a fire truck in the site of an airplane crash in Vinhedo
The plane was on its way from Cascavel to Guarulhos cruising at 17,000 feet when it began the sudden descent
City officials at Valinhos, near Vinhedo, said a home in the local condominium complex had been damaged after the plane crashed into its backyard. None of the residents were hurt.
Last night the airline said in a statement: ‘Voepass has activated all means to support those involved.
‘There is still no confirmation of how the accident occurred or the current situation of the people on board.’
The officials at Valinhos later said there were no survivors.
Diuly Sella Santa, a relative of one of the victims, told Reuters: ‘I know many people who haven’t been able to confirm (if their relatives died).
‘Most people here are not able to get any information, many could not get records. There are people with a wife, mother or child but they haven’t received a (passenger) record because they don’t have access to the list.
‘I think they’ll only get the record and say, ‘I have a relative or a friend’, when people are able to get access to the list.’
Sao Paulo’s Governor Tarcísio de Freitas is now returning from Vitória to manage the situation, according to officials.
‘The Superintendence of Technical and Scientific Police (SPTC), the Civil and Military Police are mobilized to rescue the victims,’ his agency said in a statement.
‘Teams from the Legal Medical Institute (IML) and those responsible for collecting bodies were also sent to reinforce the work.’
Huge plumes of smoke from the crash forced residents to evacuate their homes
A vehicle from Medico-Legal Institute is seen entering the site of an airplane crash last night
The aircraft was PS-VPB, a 14-year-old ATR72-500, according to FlightRadar24.
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.
GPS signal cut out just before 1.30pm local time, according to the radar.
‘ATR has been informed that an accident occurred in Vinhedo, Brazil involving an ATR 72-500,’ a spokesman for ATR said.
‘Our first thoughts are with all the individuals affected by this event. The ATR specialists are fully engaged to support both the investigation and the customer.’
Anac confirmed it is now probing the cause of the disaster.
This isn’t the first time an ATR aircraft has been involved in a deadly crash.
In 1994, an ATR-72 crashed into the Atlas Mountains while climbing to 16,000 feet on a domestic flight in Morocco from Agadir to Casablanca. It was a pilot suicide and everyone on board died.
More recently, an ATR-42 crashed in 2017 after flying into severe icing conditions and losing control in Canada. All but one passenger survived.
Despite these incidents, Aimer told DailyMail.com that the ATR-72 is a relatively safe aircraft.
And these planes are not commonly used for commercial air travel in the Unites States, he said.
In the US, ‘we’ve been very lucky that we have great training in us and safety record,’ Aimer said.
‘But nevertheless, we can never let our guards down. We need to do much better in the technology, safety training, and experience.’
The Brazilian Air Force reported that it has sent a team of investigators to the site.
While speaking at an event in Southern Brazil Friday afternoon, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva called for a moment of silence for those lost in the crash.