Last Friday, a Voepass ATR-72 had a tragic accident in Brazil, killing all onboard. There’s video footage of the accident, and it has to be one of the most unsettling plane crashes ever captured on camera, as the aircraft entered a corkscrew-style spiral, which the crew wasn’t able to recover from.
It’s too early to know what the cause of the accident was. We know that there was severe icing at the altitude the aircraft was flying at when the accident happened, though of course that doesn’t explain what caused this.
There is now an interesting revelation regarding the condition of the aircraft prior to the accident, which wasn’t initially discussed…
This aircraft was recently out of service for months
The aircraft involved in this accident was a 14-year-old ATR-72 with the registration code PS-VPB. Interestingly this exact aircraft was recently out of service for several months, as flagged by The Aviation Herald.
On March 11, 2024, this plane was operating a domestic flight in Brazil, from Recife (REC) to Salvador (SSA), with flight number 2Z2290. While enroute, the crew received a warning indicating a low hydraulic oil level. The crew worked through checklists, and made the decision to continue to the destination.
However, when the aircraft landed in Salvador, it suffered a tail strike. This wasn’t just a minor incident, as the plane ended up being grounded and not operating any passenger flights for months:
- The aircraft remained on the ground in Salvador for well over two weeks, until March 28, 2024, when it was ferried to Ribeirao Preto (RAO), where Voepass’ maintenance facilities are located
- The plane remained in the maintenance facility all the way through July 9, at which point the plane reentered service
- When the plane returned to service on July 9, it lost cabin pressure, and the aircraft was then taken out of service for an additional four days
- It finally started operating regularly scheduled flights as of July 13, all the way until the fatal accident happened, on August 9
At the time, Brazil’s CENIPA (which investigates aircraft incidents) categorized the March 11 situation as a minor incident, and no detailed investigation was ever performed. As the agency stated:
“The aircraft took off from Guararapes Airport – Gilberto Freyre (SBRF), Recife, PE, bound for Deputado Luis Eduardo Magalhães Airport (SBSV), Salvador, BA, in order to perform regular public air transportation. During the cruise phase, the aircraft displayed a low hydraulic oil level message. The procedures provided for in the manual were performed and the flight continued to the destination aerodrome. During landing, the aircraft made abnormal contact with the runway. After taxiing, the aircraft was handed over to the maintenance team.”
Some media in Brazil claim to have seen the Voepass maintenance logs for this aircraft, reflecting that there was serious structural damage. That would explain why the plane was grounded for so long.
Lastly, while you can make of this what you’d like, many passengers flying on this particular aircraft in recent days and weeks reported that the air conditioning system wasn’t working correctly and it was incredibly hot onboard, unlike on other aircraft in the fleet.
What should we make of this revelation?
Let me stress that we should let accident investigators conduct an investigation into what happened before drawing any conclusions. That being said, this is certainly a major detail that will be looked into very closely.
The timing here is certainly strange. The plane was grounded for four months, then it reentered service but had further issues, then it was grounded for another four days, and then it finally consistently reentered service. Less than a month later, the plane had a horrific crash.
It remains to be seen if or how these factors played into what happened, but I’m sure we’ll find out soon enough. This could just be a coincidence, but it seems to be the most significant lead so far.
Bottom line
A Voepass ATR-72 had a tragic accident in Brazil on Friday, which is one of the most shocking airplane accidents we’ve seen in a long time. While we don’t yet know what happened, it has now been revealed that the plane was recently grounded for around four months, following a tail strike, where the plane sustained structural damage.
We don’t yet know if or how this factored into the accident, but I imagine these details will be scrutinized closely.
What do you make of these latest details about the Voepass ATR-72 accident?
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