By: Nina He

n Friday a plane fell from 17,000 feet and crashed into the city of Vinhedo, Brazil. While everyone on the ground survived, all 58 passengers and four crew members on the plane died. The VoePass Flight 2283 was flying from Cascavel, Brazil, to São Paulo, and crashed shortly before reaching its destination. Aviation experts have deemed that the crash was caused by the plane stalling.

For anything to fly, it needs these elements: lift, weight, drag, and thrust. Without any one of them, the plane can’t stay in the air. The plane spun around several times as it fell to the ground because the wings lost lift.

John Cox, an airline pilot of 25 years who now aids plane crash investigations, said, “You can’t get into a spin without stalling. It’s A plus B equals C.”

As to why the plane had stalled, that remains a mystery.

“The main thing we know is that it’s never one thing,” said Thomas Anthony, the director of the aviation safety program at the University of Southern California.

Did the plane lose speed? Was there ice buildup on its wings? Did an engine fail? Did the stall-warning system not work? What happened to the two pilots? Thes questions remain unanswered.

Crash investigators were there on Saturday and recovered two black boxes from the crash. One contained flight data and the other contained recordings from the cockpit. This data can help experts figure out why the plane stalled.

Marcelo Moreno, Brazil’s chief crash investigator, said that they were “prioritizing quality over speed” in the investigation.