Latest developments in the Brazilian plane crash: Officials confirm that all 61 people on board were killed in a fiery crash near Sao Paulo

Airline VoePass and aircraft manufacturer ATR have issued statements regarding today’s crash.

“There is no confirmation yet on how the incident occurred or the current status of the people on board,” a statement from VoePass read.

Meanwhile, ATR said it is working to support the investigation into the incident.

“What we can say at this time is that ATR has been informed of an incident in Vinhedo, Brazil involving an ATR 72-500,” their statement read. “Our first thoughts are with all individuals affected by this event. ATR professionals are fully committed to supporting the investigation and our customers.”

A nearby resident said, CNN She witnessed the crash of Phoebus Flight 2283 in her neighborhood while she was eating lunch.

She described the incident as a “moment of panic” for the city of Vinhedo. She told the newspaper that she knelt down and began to pray when the plane crashed near her home.

The Brazilian Civil Defense Agency told CNN that the plane, which was carrying 68 people, hit several houses as it crashed.

Brazil’s president says all passengers on board the Voipas plane are presumed dead after video footage showed the plane’s wreckage burning in a residential area in Sao Paulo state.

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Data from aircraft tracking service Flightradar24 provides additional information about VoePass Flight 2283 before it crashed and killed 61 people.

The plane appears to have departed Cascavel Airport’s runway 16 minutes late, at 11:56 a.m. After a very short flight, it took off two minutes later, reaching its airspeed of 17,000 feet at 12:22 p.m. It remained at that altitude for about an hour.

Flightradar24 relies on crowdsourcing from volunteers who receive data transmitted by aircraft and send it to the company’s base in Stockholm. The data may not be representative of the real picture; during a flight, Flightradar24 shows ground speeds ranging from 94 to 357 knots, an unreasonable range.

The rapid descent begins at 1:21 p.m., reaching a maximum vertical speed of 24,000 feet per minute—about 10 times the normal rate of descent, or 275 mph. The last data is transmitted at 1:22 p.m., when the aircraft appears at 4,100 feet and a vertical speed of more than 12,000 feet per minute, or about 140 mph.

The data could help investigators from Brazil’s National Civil Aviation Agency (ANAC) determine the causes of the tragedy.

The aircraft involved in the fatal crash in Brazil was a 14-year-old ATR-27, registered PS-VPB.

The ATR 72, built by a French-Italian joint venture, has been in service since 1989. The aircraft can seat up to 78 passengers and is described by its manufacturer as “the most fuel-efficient regional jet”.

This type of aircraft is commonly used in domestic operations in India, Brazil, New Zealand, Thailand, Russia and the Canary Islands of Spain.

In the UK, passengers are most likely to fly the ATR-72 on Aer Lingus Regional services operated by Emerald Airlines, and on domestic flights on Loganair. Like most other aircraft types that have been in service for decades, the ATR 72 has suffered a number of tragedies in its 35-year history. The one on 9 August 2024 was the 12th.

The first flight was in 1994, on an American Eagle domestic flight from Indianapolis to Chicago. The wings froze while the plane was parked. All 68 passengers and crew were killed.

More than a decade later, the next accident occurred off the coast of Palermo in 2005, when a Tunter flight from Bari, Italy, to Djerba, Tunisia, was destroyed. Engineers had mistakenly installed a fuel gauge for the smaller ATR-42. The plane ran out of fuel and plunged at high speed into the Mediterranean Sea, killing 16 people; 23 survived.

Subsequent crashes occurred on domestic flights in Thailand, Cuba, Russia, Laos and Taiwan – where two TransAsia Airways ATR-72s crashed within eight months, in July 2014 and February 2015.

The last two fatal accidents before the Brazilian tragedy were on domestic flights in countries with poor aviation safety records: Iran in 2018, which killed 65 people, and Nepal in 2023, which killed 72 people.

A nearby resident said, CNN She witnessed the crash of Phoebus Flight 2283 in her neighborhood while she was eating lunch.

She described the incident as a “moment of panic” for the city of Vinhedo. She told the newspaper that she knelt down and began to pray when the plane crashed near her home.

The Brazilian Civil Defense Agency told CNN that the plane, which was carrying 68 people, hit several houses as it crashed.

A Brazilian airline said a plane carrying 61 people crashed in a fire in a residential area of ​​a city in Sao Paulo state, and the country’s president said all passengers were presumed dead.

The airline Voipas confirmed that a plane heading to Guarulhos International Airport in Sao Paulo crashed with 58 passengers and four crew members on board.

Brazil’s Globo News TV network showed footage of a large area on fire and smoke rising from what appeared to be a plane’s fuselage in an area full of houses.

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