Posted on 08/10/2024 4:42:22 AM PDT by Libloather
Witnesses have described their horror at watching a plane 'fall out of the sky and explode' in Brazil on Friday - as experts scramble to make sense of what happened.
Dramatic video showed the moment a Voepass Airlines plane came spiralling down over populated areas before crashing behind a cluster of trees, near homes.
'I almost believe the pilot tried to avoid a nearby neighbourhood, which is densely populated,' Daniel de Lima, a resident of Vinhedo near the crash site, told Reuters.
All 61 people on board have been reported dead, though relatives are still waiting for confirmation of the fate of their loved ones.
Voepass has since revealed that all those on board - including 57 passengers and four crew - were carrying Brazilian-issued documents.
Some of the passengers were doctors from Parana heading to a seminar, Governor Ratinho Junior told reporters.
'These were people who were used to saving lives, and now they've lost theirs in such tragic circumstances,' he said.
Daniel de Lima said he heard a loud noise on Friday before looking outside his condo and seeing the plane in a horizontal spiral.
'It was rotating, but it wasn't moving forward,' he told Reuters. 'Soon after it fell out of the sky and exploded.'
'When I heard the sound of the plane falling, I looked out my window at home and saw the moment it crashed,' witness Felipe Magalhaes told Reuters.
'Terrified and not knowing what to do, I jumped over the wall,' he said.
The plane was on its way from Cascavel to Guarulhos cruising at 17,000 feet when it began the sudden descent.
Brazil's Civil Defense says the plane struck several houses within the residential area, CNN Brasil reported.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
“The wings look a bit undersized for the fuselage.”
Good observation. I was just going to post that.
Since other pilots are weighing in, I’ll give my .02 cents. The trouble started at 17,000 feet. Not knowing anymore than watching the videos, it looks like a recoverable spin, which likely started with a stall. The ol’ power back, nose down, hard right turn, and right rudder to the floor should have worked. Serious icing could have played a part. But, he had 17,000 feet to recover.
The only ones who really know what happened are the pilots and the black box.
A flat spin is not a death spiral. Two different beasties.
The black strips at the leading edges of the wings are deicing boots.
Yes, a French made twin turbo. Not a Jet.
At all times the indicted pressure altitude must greater than the AGL altitude of the terrain that is being flown over. Everything else is just style.
How To Recover From a Flat Spin
The FAA teaches the acronym “PARE” to help pilots remember how to recover from a spin and spin recovery technique.
P – Power to idle
A – Ailerons neutral (control yoke centered)
R – Rudder opposite turn
E – Elevator forward
All spins start with a stall. A stall occurs when the critical angle of attack of the wings are exceeded. A stall can happen at any speed.
A spin happens when a yaw component is introduced to a stall.
Some airplanes, such as the Grumman line of private aircraft, (Yankee, Traveler, Cheetah, Tiger, etc.) are incapable of recovering from a spin. They are very difficult to enter a spin due to the lack of rudder below the horizontal stabilizer. This same design feature also makes it nearly impossible to recover from a spin, once it develops, even when following PARE procedures.
10-4 on no ATR flying. Several times flying in them— felt the entire flight that, “darn it the wings are too skinny”and secondly could hear the high powered turboprops needed to keeping the wing surface with proper lift-straining in turbulence and precip at altitudes with ice. 2 of the many times— there was icing on the wings. Preferred the small Bombardier jets to these. Those jets had leading edge internal de-icers- running exhaust through them (?).
Not a pilot- as is obvious from my post. Just impressions that were not based in any facts- we did get to destination in each time, but did not like the way it felt- if that makes any sense. Which it doesn’t taken objectively. Flying in Caribbean in a variety of aircraft put some excitement in the work day.
I am not a pilot either. But watching aircraft accident videos seem to indicate pilots are way behind the aircraft when the autopilot disengages during heavy icing or other foul weather events when they crash..
Watched the home page/video and they look small front to back.
It was....in this case.
Grumman added a placard that read: THIS AIRCRAFT CANNOT DO SPINS
At least one, that aircraft most certainly can.
Not sure what the 'it' is to which you're referring.
Flat spin or death spiral?
I retired from Boeing 24 years ago.
So it is very possible that ATR fixed that problem since then.
It was killing them and passengers in the 1990’s
Did anyone see anything about a group of oncologists on board who were going to speak about the impact of the vax on some turbo cancer?
The preliminary accident report is out...the usual ATR icing issues combined with pilot inattention/incompetence:
https://youtu.be/ETq5IxmJYPM?si=8nQ1Pl4DWHJSdFku
https://dedalo.sti.fab.mil.br/en/85259
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