Pilot who witnessed plane crash reports anguish over scene: “Terrible”

In an interview with CNN Brazil pilot Durval Fantozzi Filho, resident of the city of Vinhedo, in the interior of São Paulo, witnessed the fall of the Voepass aircraft on Friday (9) and stated that the experience was “terrible”.

Fantozzi reported that he was at home when he heard an unusual noise from an aircraft flying over the city. “That really caught my attention, I couldn’t see the aircraft because the sky was very overcast,” he described.

Moments of tension and spiraling fall

The pilot noted that the engines seemed to be using high power, as if they were taking off, but that the aircraft’s speed was slow. After about a minute, Fantozzi stated: “I had the sad image of seeing the aircraft leaving the layer in a spiraling downward flight, in a maneuver called a flat spin.”

Fantozzi explained that, in this type of maneuver, the pilot is unable to regain control of the aircraft. “That gave me great agony, because I knew that the plane was going to crash,” he reported.

Investigation and possible causes

Although the official cause of the accident has not yet been determined, Fantozzi believes that the meteorological factor with the occurrence of severe icing at low levels may have been a major contributing factor. He stressed that aeronautical forecasts indicated the possibility of icing at the altitude at which the aircraft was located.

The pilot praised the work of the Aeronautical Accident Investigation and Prevention Center (CENIPA) and stated that the teams are committed to elucidating the causes of the accident to ensure the safety of pilots and passengers in the future.

“CENIPA’s work is sensational because they do not have the objective of criminalizing anyone. They simply want to clarify what happened and publish it for the aeronautical community so that we can increasingly fly safely,” concluded Fantozzi.