Brazil’s Centre for Research and Prevention of Aeronautical Accidents (CENIPA) has released its preliminary report on the ATR 72-500 crash from regional airline Voepass’s fleet. The aircraft crashed on 9 August 2024, with 62 onboard fatalities. The plane had been flying from Cascavel to Sao Paulo.
This preliminary report, based on information gathered from the Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) and the Flight Data Recorder (FDR), suggests that a buildup of ice on the plane could have been a significant factor in the crash.
On the cockpit voice recorder, the co-pilot commented that there was “a lot of icing” shortly before control of the aircraft was lost.
Based on upper-air atmospheric data also released in the report, it was “possible” to identify the presence of a lot of humidity combined with a below 0 degrees air temperature – conditions which “favoured the occurrence of severe icing in altitude”.
However, CENIPA is still collecting data for evaluation and validation to add to this report. The investigation will now follow three “main lines of action”– human, material, and operations – to ensure all conclusions are reliable and accurate before the Final Report is published.
ATR released a statement after the preliminary report was released confirming that it had seen the report and “re-affirms its full support to all the authorities involved.”
Photo: Voepass / Wikimedia Commons
