BRAZIL – While it is too early to determine with any certainty what caused a devastating airplane crash in Brazil last week, air disaster experts say the incident bears similarity to a landmark crash 30 years ago that triggered major safety reforms. Friday’s Voepass 2283 flight from Cascavel, near Brazil’s border with Paraguay, to Guarulhos in São Paulo state, crashed after flying through an area where “severe icing” was forecast between 12,000 and 21,000 feet, according to a publicly available alert to pilots. The flight was cruising at 17,000 feet, according to data from FlightAware, when the pilots appeared to lose control.

The wreckage of an airplane that crashed with 61 people on board in Vinhedo, Sao Paulo State, Brazil, on August 10, 2024. An airplane carrying 57 passengers and four crew crashed on August 9 in Brazil’s Sao Paulo state, killing everyone on board, the airline said. The aircraft, an ATR 72-500 operated by Voepass airline, was traveling from Cascavel in southern Parana state to Sao Paulo’s Guarulhos international airport when it crashed in the city of Vinhedo.

At least two experts CNN spoke to suggest that ice build-up on the plane may have triggered last week’s catastrophic series of events. “All the preliminary signals point toward an icing event,” said former managing director of the National Transportation Safety Board Peter Goelz, who reviewed early flight tracking data. In-flight icing can “distort the flow of air over the wing and adversely affect handling qualities,” according to Federal Aviation Administration documents, triggering an airplane to “roll or pitch uncontrollably, and recovery may be impossible.” “Icing is perhaps the leading theory,” said former NTSB vice chairman Bruce Landsberg. “As we progress through the investigation, things will start to solidify.”

The French-Italian ATR 72 has “checkered record” Goelz said. On October 31, 1994, an ATR 72 crashed in Roselawn, Indiana; the American Eagle flight 4184 had encountered severe, in-flight icing from freezing drizzle. All 68 people on board were killed. Significant testing followed that crash, and the Federal Aviation Administration mandated a modification to the deicing system on the front edge of ATR 72 wings as well as more training for pilots on severe ice encounters. Today, and in the light of the Voepass incident, Goelz says, “I think the question of whether this plane is safe in icing is worth a serious revisit.”

The wreckage of an airplane that crashed with 61 people on board in Vinhedo, Sao Paulo State, Brazil, on August 10, 2024. An airplane carrying 57 passengers and four crew crashed on August 9 in Brazil’s Sao Paulo state, killing everyone on board, the airline said. The aircraft, an ATR 72-500 operated by Voepass airline, was traveling from Cascavel in southern Parana state to Sao Paulo’s Guarulhos international airport when it crashed in the city of Vinhedo. (CNN)…[+]