By: Summer Lin

On August 9th, 2024, a plane crashed near Sao Paulo, Brazil, killing 58 passengers and 4 crew members. The plane crashed because it had stalled, meaning it had lost the lift to keep it in the air, stopped flying and started falling.

Many theories emerged about the mystery of the crash of the plane model Voepass Flight 2283 had stalled had many theories. Maybe the pilots were tired, perhaps it lost speed, or maybe one of its engines was broken.

“The way the aircraft fell, spinning out of control, is characteristic of someone who lost the functionality of the wing and the aircraft controls,” said Celso Faria de Souza, a Brazilian aeronautical engineer and forensic expert in plane crashes. “This can happen because of ice.”[1]

This particular plane was sensitive to ice, an important discovery into the real reason the plane had crashed.. The crew might’ve not had an anti-icing system, or they had it, and activated it, but it failed. The only thing the investigators knew for sure was that the plane had stalled.

Captain John Cox is the Chief Executive Officer of Safety Operating Systems.
“You can’t get into a spin without stalling,” said John Cox, an airline pilot for 25 years who now aids plane crash investigations. “It’s A plus B equals C.”

The bodies of 34 men and 28 women were recovered. According to the São Paulo government, only two people, the pilot and co-pilot, have been identified. Among those killed were a 3-year-old girl, a 4-year-old boy traveling with his pet dog, and a couple who left behind three children.[2]

Joselito Paulo is the president of the Brazilian Aviation Security Association.

“They may have tried to speak, and the radio failed, the communication failed,” said Paulo, “Or they made the communication, but it wasn’t intercepted by air traffic control.” This shows that the plane did not communicate or call for help, or they tried and couldn’t.

When the plane crashed, it took 62 lives, and investigators are still trying to figure out what caused the crash. No matter what went wrong with the plan, engineers are trying to fix it and improve our technology.

[1]What Caused a Plane to Fall From the Sky in Brazil?

[2]Girl, 3, and boy, 4, confirmed dead in Brazilian plane crash as rescuers retrieve bodies

https://www.cnn.com/2024/08/11/americas/brazil-plane-crash-bodies-recovered-intl/index.html