ATR Crash Kills 62 Near Sao Paulo

An ATR 72 regional airliner appeared to be in a flat spin before it crashed in a residential area about 50 miles north of Sao Paulo, Brazil, on Friday. All…

An ATR 72 regional airliner appeared to be in a flat spin before it crashed in a residential area about 50 miles north of Sao Paulo, Brazil, on Friday. All 58 passengers and four crew were killed. The flight was operated by Voepass Linhas Aereas and was reportedly inbound for landing at Sao Paulo at about 17,000 feet when the crew stopped responding to ATC.

A video shows the aircraft pitched vertically down before the wings mostly level and the plane drops vertically in a flat spin. Icing conditions were reported in the area but were not considered to be beyond the aircraft's capability. There were no fatalities on the ground. The plane reportedly hit at least one house but its vertical trajectory meant the debris path was small. All the bodies had been recovered by Sunday.

Russ Niles is Editor-in-Chief of AVweb. He has been a pilot for 30 years and joined AVweb 22 years ago. He and his wife Marni live in southern British Columbia where they also operate a small winery.