A Voepass airline ATR 72-500 turboprop aircraft crashed near São Paulo, Brazil, on August 9, 2024, killing all 62 people on board. The crash, which occurred in the town of Vinhedo, has sparked a major investigation into the airline’s safety practices as families of the victims demand answers.
The aircraft took off from Cascavel in Paraná and was en route to Guarulhos, São Paulo’s international airport, when it suddenly lost control and plummeted. The crash site, located in a residential area, was devastated by the impact, but no one on the ground was injured. Witnesses reported seeing the plane in a “death spiral” before it crashed. The terrifying descent was captured on video by locals, showing the aircraft spiraling out of the sky before exploding on impact.
A 23-year-old passenger on the flight sent a series of chilling texts to her family, expressing fear about the plane’s condition just before it plummeted to the ground. Returning home from a work trip, Rosana Santos Xavier messaged her family via WhatsApp moments after boarding the plane. “Man, two hours of flight. We’re going to arrive in the rain. I am so scared of this flight. I swear. The plane is old,” Santos Xavier wrote. She followed up with another ominous text: “There is a broken seat. I swear. Chaos.” Shortly after sending these messages, the plane lost contact with radar and spiraled out of the sky, crashing into a residential area in Vinhedo, São Paulo state.
Family members of the victims have accused Voepass of preventable negligence, believing that the tragedy could have been avoided. Maria de Fátima Albuquerque, who lost her daughter, Dr. Arianne Albuquerque Risso, in the crash, argued that the incident was not merely a fatality but a criminal act, asserting that the plane was in such poor condition that anyone on board would have perished. Albuquerque’s views are shared by others who are now questioning how the aircraft was permitted to operate, given its troubled history.
One day before the crash, passengers on the same aircraft reported experiencing severe heat caused by a malfunctioning air conditioning system. Civil servant Cleiton Feitosa described the heat inside the plane as unbearable. Entrepreneur Ângela Espíndola, who flew from Goiás to São Paulo, expressed her fear, noting that it was unusually hot and that everything is usually ready to go when passengers board.
The Voepass aircraft was grounded for several months earlier this year due to a hydraulic problem and structural damage. After extensive repairs, the plane returned to service in July 2024, but it encountered further issues on its first flight back, including a depressurization event that grounded it for an additional four days.
Investigators are now considering severe icing conditions along the flight route as a potential contributing factor to the crash, though experts caution that the cause may be more complex. Brazil, France, and Canada investigators have recovered and analyzed the aircraft’s black boxes.
The crash is the deadliest airline incident in Brazil since 2007 and has prompted widespread calls for a thorough investigation. As the investigation continues, families and experts alike await more information that could explain how such a tragedy could occur.