By: Isabella Liu

Voepass Linhas Aéreas Flight 2283 crashed in the city of Vinhedo, Brazil while it was heading to Sao Paulo Guarulhos International airport on Friday, August 9th, 2024. It slammed into a gated community and turned into a fiery wreck. It killed all 61 people onboard, including 8 cancer doctors, 2 kids and a lawyer.
The plane’s fall was recorded and experts were watching the video to find out what caused the plane to crash. The video showed the plane plunging in a flat spin. The investigators said the plane had stalled. A stall is when an aircraft wing stops producing lift due to an excessive angle of attack. But why the plane stalled is still a mystery. Some meteorologists said it was because of the ice formations in the region. Crash investigators in Brazil said on Saturday that they had recovered the plane’s two black boxes — one containing flight data and the other recordings from the cockpit — and were working to extract information from them.

Two of the cancer doctors, Mariana Belim and Ariane Risso, were from the Uopeccan Cancer Hospital in Cascavel, the same city where the plane took off from on Aug. 9th. They were headed for an oncology conference to sharpen their knowledge about a disease that kills tens of thousands of Brazilians every year. Parana state’s Gov. Ratinho Júnior told journalists in Vinhedo, “They were people who were used to saving lives, and now they lost theirs in such tragic circumstances. It is a sad day.”

The lawyer was Laiana Vasatta, who would represent clients in lawsuits against airlines. Also killed were 3-year-old Liz Ibba dos Santos and her father. The child’s mother was not on the flight. Another group of family members — Josgleidys Gonzalez, her mother Maria Gladys Parra Holguin, her young son Joslan Perez and their dog Luna — were involved in the crash as well.

The State of São Paulo has announced three days of official mourning to honor the victims of the fatal crash. An investigation into what caused the crash is ongoing. “Officials are working row by row (of the crashed aircraft) to retrieve and identify the bodies,” Sao Paulo spokesperson Maycon Cristo said, adding that the bodies are in such conditions that it’s difficult to identify.