Civil Defense: fog and dense forest were the main challenges in finding a helicopter

In an interview with CNN , on the morning of this Friday (12), the captain of the Civil Defense of São Paulo, Roberto Farina, reported the difficulties in accessing the helicopter found today in Paraibuna, Vale do Paraíba. According to him, bad weather was one of the factors that made the search difficult.

“The cloudiness and meteorological conditions in the region were very damaging. One of the biggest factors, along with the issue of dense forest”, explained the captain.

This Friday (12), the forecast is for a lot of rain, according to Climatempo, due to the action of low pressure that passes close to the coast and brings humidity to the state. All regions are on alert due to the combination of this low pressure and the heat.

The vegetation at the site also hindered the rescue work. “We have a very large planted eucalyptus region. This ends up making it difficult due to the height of these trees, which greatly hampered the search”, revealed Farina, despite the team's expertise.

“We have the 11th Fire Brigade in this region, which is extremely specialized in search and rescue in this region, because several people sometimes end up hiking, trying to enter the forest, and end up getting lost. So, this is a specialized group that is combined with the Aviation Command, with the Brazilian Air Force,” he said.

Also according to Civil Defense, taking into account the geography of the location, the teams assembled first aid kits. The men rappelled down from the helicopters to try to rescue survivors. However, after 12 days of searching, none of the occupants of the aircraft, which disappeared on the 31st, resisted.

The Robinson R44 helicopter had taken off from Campo de Marte airport, in the capital of São Paulo and was heading to Ilhabela, on the north coast of the state. Due to bad weather, the aircraft made an emergency landing in a forested area, but took off again and crashed.

In addition to the pilot Cassiano Tete Teodoro, aged 44, on board were businessman Raphael Torres, aged 41, merchant Luciana Rodzewics, aged 46, and her daughter, Letícia, aged 20.