Maintenance of the plane that crashed in São Paulo was up to date, says company president

The President of the company Voepass, José Luís Felício Filho stated in his testimony in the Chamber of Deputies, this Tuesday (29), that the plane that crashed on August 9 in Vinhedo interior of São Paulo, it had undergone recent maintenance, exactly the night before the accident, and had enough fuel to fly over its route.

José states that it is normal on some flights, such as the one in question that lasted 1h40, for ice crystals to form along the route and accumulate in the aircraft structure. According to him, the system was possibly turned on and off a few times, but only the Aeronautical Accident Investigation and Prevention Center (Cenipa) can determine the intensity of the ice that affected the operation of the plane's system.

_{José Luís Felício Filho, President of Voepass in the Chamber of Deputies (Photo: reproduction/Bruno Spada/Chamber of Deputies)}

About the accident

The plane that fatefully crashed, killing 58 passengers and 4 crew members on August 9 of this year in Vinhedo, in the interior of São Paulo, was the ATR-72 model and flight 2283 had a route that day leaving Cascavel (PR) at 11:58 am and its final destination would be Guarulhos (SP), but at 1:21 pm the signal was completely lost until it collided with the ground. The ATR-72 aircraft has been on the market since 1988, it is a medium commercial turboprop and is known for being a safe and highly technological aircraft.

It had an active PS-VPB registration number, and underwent maintenance the day before the accident. The investigation is ongoing by experts from the Aeronautical Accident Investigation and Prevention Center (Cenipa), according to the Brazilian Air Force (FAB), the The data used to create the report does not seek to identify culprits or hold people responsible, but to investigate all the technical and human causes that contributed to the accident, to prevent similar cases from occurring.

Investigation

The National Civil Aviation Agency (Anac) confirmed that the aircraft's maintenance was up to date and, according to José, the plane had enough fuel to complete the journey safely to 10 thousand feet, which made it possible to fly lower, using more fuel to avoid ice formations, it also states that all pilots and crew underwent training to deal with adverse conditions, including ice, which was one of the hypotheses highlighted in the investigation: “I've been flying with this company since the beginning, my family flies, my children are training to be pilots for this company.''. He adds that if he did not trust the service offered to him and his family, it would not be useful to his crew and passengers.

The black boxes were recovered without damage and are extremely important for understanding what was happening in the captains' cabin, as it has a device called Flight Data Recorder, the famous “black box”, capable of recording all flight data such as altitude , speed and weather conditions, including conversations between pilots, crew and control tower. These recorders are made to withstand any accidents. The commander reported that during the ascent, an apparent failure in the device responsible for removing the layer of ice formed between the aircraft's wings was recorded.

The final report will present all the conclusions of the investigation, but It has not yet been completed and could take more than a year to complete. Second The FAB informed that it intends to complete the investigations as soon as possible, respecting the complexity of the case. Once completed, the Final Report will be published on the Cenipa website.

Featured photo: Voepass Airplane (reproduction/AFP/Miguel Schincariol/Getty Images Embed)