>ATR aircraft have had a troublesome history with ice.<
The operative word is “had”. Following an accident in Roselawn Indiana 25 years ago, they flight tested the crap out of the airplane, in icing conditions, and slightly modified the wing deice boots and icing detection system. I doubt any other aircraft type was put through that rigorous type of testing.
I have several thousand hours in the ATR42 and ATR72. During that testing we transposed our fleet sending all of the ATRs to do Texas flying and the rest of the fleet to Newark. It was dubbed Ice Tour 94 and I remember it dearly. Oh the stories.
My unofficial (non CNN credentialed) opinion is the Roselawn plane flew into severe icing. Planes were never designed for that.
Regarding Sao Paolo, I’m withholding speculation until there is more data. A flat spin is not normal unless one prop went to full reverse. A flat spin is not normal unless the rudder falls off. A flat spin is not normal unless the CG abruptly moves way aft.
The authorities have the flight recorder and should be able to make a determination fairly quickly. If our press doesn’t get distracted by some other shiny object, maybe they will stick with this story long enough to learn something.
EC
Eventually MentourPilot will do an episode on this accident.