Connect with us

World

Passenger plane crashes in Brazil, killing all 61 on board

Video shared on social media showed the ATR-72 aircraft spinning out of control as it plunged down behind a cluster of trees near houses, followed by a large plume of black smoke.

Published

on

(Last Updated On: )

A regional turboprop plane fell into what aviation experts called a flat spin before crashing in a residential neighborhood near Sao Paulo in Brazil on Friday, killing all 61 people on board.

Regional carrier Voepass said the plane, bound for Sao Paulo’s international airport, took off from Cascavel, in the state of Parana, and crashed at around 1:30 p.m. (1630 GMT) in the town of Vinhedo, some 80 km (50 miles) northwest of Sao Paulo, Reuters reported.

Video shared on social media showed the ATR-72 aircraft spinning out of control as it plunged down behind a cluster of trees near houses, followed by a large plume of black smoke.

Nearby resident Daniel de Lima said he heard a loud noise before looking outside his condominium in Vinhedo 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.”

City officials at Valinhos, near Vinhedo, said a home in the local condominium complex had been damaged after the plane crashed into its backyard. None of the residents were hurt.

“I almost believe the pilot tried to avoid a nearby neighborhood, which is densely populated,” de Lima said.

The plane’s unusual final circling motion before hitting the ground triggered widespread curiosity among aviation experts, leading some to speculate that ice had built up on the plane or it had experienced engine failure, but investigators said it was too early to determine the cause of the crash.

“Today ice was predicted (at the altitudes the plane was flying at), but within the acceptable range,” Voepass Chief Operations Officer Marcel Moura told a press conference.

“But the plane is sensitive to ice, that could be a starting point,” Moura said, adding the plane’s de-icing system, along with all other systems, had been deemed operational before takeoff.

Brazilian aviation engineer and crash investigator Celso Faria de Souza told Reuters that a buildup of ice could have caused the plane to stall and spiral in the way that it did.

An ATR-72 crashed in 1994 in Indiana, killing 68, after the plane was unable to bank due to ice accretion. Another ATR-72 stalled out in 2016 in Norway after ice built up on the plane, but the pilot was able to regain control of the aircraft.

An ATR-27 also crashed in Nepal in 2023, with the final report attributing pilot error.

The head of Brazilian aviation accident investigation center Cenipa said the plane’s so-called “black box” containing voice recordings and flight data had been recovered from the site.

U.S. aviation safety expert Anthony Brickhouse said investigators would look at things like weather and whether the engines and controls were functioning properly ahead of the crash.

“From what I’ve seen, it was definitely what we would call loss of control,” he said.

Flightradar data showed significant gyrations in speed before the crash, U.S. aviation safety consultant and former commercial pilot John Cox said, cautioning that he would want to verify the data but that something “really significant” happened to cause the plane to spin when it came down.

“It appears that there may have been some catastrophic event before that loss of control,” he said.

Cenipa head Marcelo Moreno told a press conference that initial reports indicated the aircraft had not reached out to traffic control to report an emergency.

Voepass, Brazil’s fourth-largest airline by market share, had originally reported 62 people aboard the aircraft. Local outlet Globo News interviewed two men who said they had missed the flight.

In total, the plane was carrying 57 passengers and four crew, Voepass said. All were carrying Brazilian-issued documents, the carrier reported.

Some of the passengers were doctors from Parana heading to a seminar, Governor Ratinho Junior told journalists.

“These were people who were used to saving lives, and now they’ve lost theirs in such tragic circumstances,” he said.

Franco-Italian ATR, jointly owned by Airbus (AIR.PA), opens new tab and Leonardo (LDOF.MI), opens new tab, is the dominant producer of regional turboprop planes seating 40 to 70 people.

ATR told Reuters that its specialists were “fully engaged” with the investigation into the crash and its customers.

The motor on the plane was a PW 127 produced by Pratt & Whitney Canada, its parent company RTX Corp (RTX.N), opens new tab confirmed to Reuters. RTX said that it had offered assistance in the investigation.

Both French and Canadian investigators will participate in the investigation, Moreno said. Europe’s safety regulator also said it would offer technical assistance.

The crash is Brazil’s deadliest since 199 people were killed in 2007 on a flight operated by TAM, which later joined LAN to become what is now LATAM Airlines.

World

Zelenskiy says Ukraine has ‘low chance’ of survival without US backing

Published

on

(Last Updated On: )

Ukraine has little chance of surviving Russia’s assault without U.S. support, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Friday after phone calls this week by U.S. President Donald Trump with Zelenskiy and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“Probably it will be very, very, very difficult. And of course, in all the difficult situations, you have a chance. But we will have low chance – low chance to survive without support of the United States,” Zelenskiy said in an interview on the NBC News program “Meet the Press.”

An excerpt was released on Friday from the interview, which will be broadcast on Sunday. Reuters reported.

Trump discussed the war on Wednesday in separate calls with Putin and Zelenskiy, in the U.S. president’s first big step toward diplomacy in a conflict he has promised to end quickly.

Trump later said he did not think it was practical for Kyiv to join NATO and that it was unlikely Ukraine would get back all its land. Russia, which annexed Crimea in 2014, launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Ukraine demands Russia withdraw from captured territory and says it must receive NATO membership or equivalent security guarantees to prevent Moscow from attacking again.

Zelenskiy said in the interview that Putin wanted to come to the negotiating table not to end the war but to get a ceasefire deal to lift some global sanctions on Russia and allow Moscow’s military to regroup.

“This is really what he wants. He wants pause, prepare, train, take off some sanctions, because of ceasefire,” Zelenskiy said.

Trump said his call with Putin was a good conversation that lasted over an hour, while the Kremlin said it lasted nearly an hour and a half. Zelenskiy’s office said Trump and Zelenskiy spoke for about an hour. Trump said the call “went very well.”

 

Continue Reading

World

US VP Vance threatens sanctions, military action to push Putin into Ukraine deal

Published

on

(Last Updated On: )

U.S. Vice President JD Vance said the U.S. could hit Moscow with sanctions and potential military action if Russian President Vladimir Putin does not agree to a peace deal with Ukraine that guarantees Kyiv’s long-term independence, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.

“There are economic tools of leverage, there are of course military tools of leverage” the U.S. could use against Putin, Vance said in an interview with the newspaper, according to Reuters.

U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday discussed the war with Russian President Vladimir Putin and separately with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, and told U.S. officials to begin talks on ending the nearly three-year-long conflict.

The phone calls came shortly after U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told Ukraine’s military allies in Brussels that a return to Ukraine’s pre-2014 borders – before Russia annexed Crimea – was unrealistic and that the U.S. does not see NATO membership for Kyiv as part of a solution.

Ukrainians on Thursday worried that Trump was preparing to sell out their country following his phone call Putin.

However, Trump on Thursday said that Ukraine would be involved in peace talks with Russia. He told reporters at the White House that Ukraine would have a seat at the table during any peace negotiations with Russia over ending the war.

Kyiv said it would be premature to speak with Moscow at a security conference on Friday.

“I think there is a deal that is going to come out of this that’s going to shock a lot of people,” the newspaper quoted Vance as saying.

“The president is not going to go in this with blinders on,” Vance said. “He’s going to say, ‘Everything is on the table, let’s make a deal.’”

Continue Reading

World

US Navy jet crashed off San Diego coast, crew members safe

Published

on

(Last Updated On: )

A U.S. Navy jet crashed off the coast of San Diego on Wednesday but both crew members were safely recovered, a U.S. official said.

The official, who was speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the EA-18G Growler, used for electronic warfare, was based out of Washington State, Reuters reported.

The reason for the crash was unclear, but the Coast Guard had rescued both the pilots from the two-seater jet.

U.S. military aviation safety has been in focus after an Army Black Hawk helicopter collided with a passenger jet in Washington D.C. last month.

Continue Reading

Trending

Copyright © 2024 Ariana News. All rights reserved!