A 1994 plane crash looms over investigation into Brazil flight tragedy

Investigators are still determining what caused Voepass flight 2283 to crash in Brazil last week. But experts say the incident is similar to a 1994 crash in Indiana.

While it is too early to determine with any certainty what caused a devastating airplane crash in Brazil last week, air disaster experts say the incident bears similarity to a landmark crash 30 years ago that triggered major safety reforms. Friday’s Voepass 2283 flight from Cascavel, near Brazil’s border with Paraguay, to Guarulhos in São Paulo state, crashed after flying through an area where “severe icing” was forecast between 12,000 and 21,000 feet, according to a publicly available alert to pilots. The flight was cruising at 17,000 feet, according to data from FlightAware, when the pilots appeared to lose control. At least two experts CNN spoke to suggest that ice build-up on the plane may have triggered last week’s catastrophic series of events. “All the preliminary signals point toward an icing event,” said former managing director of the National Transportation Safety Board Peter Goelz, who reviewed early flight tracking data. Numerous videos posted on social media show the turboprop ATR 72 in an apparent flat spin as it spiraled toward the ground with no visible forward movement. All 62 passengers and the crew were killed when the plane crashed near Vinhedo, making it 2024’s deadliest crash of a commercial airliner. In-flight icing can “distort the flow of air over the wing and adversely affect handling qualities,” according to Federal Aviation Administration documents, triggering an airplane to “roll or pitch uncontrollably, and recovery may be impossible.”