The airplane’s uncommon remaining circling movement earlier than hitting the bottom triggered widespread curiosity amongst aviation specialists, main some to take a position that ice had constructed up on the airplane or it had skilled engine failure, however investigators mentioned it was too early to find out the reason for the crash.
“At this time ice was predicted (on the altitudes the airplane was flying at), however inside the acceptable vary,” Voepass chief operations officer Marcel Moura informed a press convention.
“However the airplane is delicate to ice, that might be a place to begin,” Moura mentioned, including the airplane’s de-icing system, together with all different methods, had been deemed operational earlier than takeoff.
Brazilian aviation engineer and crash investigator Celso Faria de Souza informed Reuters {that a} buildup of ice might have brought about the airplane to stall and spiral in the way in which that it did.
An ATR-72 crashed in 1994 in Indiana, killing 68, after the airplane was unable to financial institution attributable to ice accretion. One other ATR-72 stalled out in 2016 in Norway after ice constructed up on the airplane, however the pilot was in a position to regain management of the plane.
An ATR-72 also crashed in Nepal in 2023, with the ultimate report attributing pilot error.
The pinnacle of Brazilian aviation accident investigation centre Cenipa mentioned the airplane’s so-called “black field” containing voice recordings and flight information had been recovered from the location.
US aviation security professional Anthony Brickhouse mentioned investigators would take a look at issues like climate and whether or not the engines and controls have been functioning correctly forward of the crash.
“From what I’ve seen, it was positively what we’d name lack of management,” he mentioned.
Flightradar information confirmed important gyrations in velocity earlier than the crash, US aviation security guide and former business pilot John Cox mentioned, cautioning that he would need to confirm the information however that one thing “actually important” occurred to trigger the airplane to spin when it got here down.
“It seems that there could have been some catastrophic occasion earlier than that lack of management,” he mentioned.
