Pilot’s ‘haunting’ explanation for fatal crash

A pilot has shared a confronting explanation behind the fatal plane crash in Brazil that killed all 62 passengers on-board.

A New York-based pilot has shared a confronting explanation behind the fatal plane crash in Brazil that killed all 62 passengers on-board.

Brazilian operated Voepass Flight 2283 was headed for Guarulhos international airport in Sao Paulo with 58 passengers and four crew members aboard when it went down on Friday in Vinhedo, 78km north of the city.

Horrifying footage shared to social media showed the ATR 72 twin-engine turboprop fall from the sky.

Brazilian rescue teams retrieved the remains of all 62 passengers from the wreckage over the weekend.

Peter Cappio, a TV personality from the US and Boeing 767 pilot with more than 10 years’ experience, shared a clip explaining the “disturbing” viral vision of the plane plummeting.

“A lot of people are asking me what happened – number one — I am not going to quarterback a situation where I obviously don’t know what happened,” he began.

“No reports are out over the cause of the accident, that stuff takes weeks, months sometimes years to investigate and figure out the exact cause.

Pete, a Boeing 767 pilot from the US, said the plane experienced a ‘deep stall into a spin’.

“The only thing I will say is the airplane clearly stalled and then in a deep stall, into a spin.”

He said a stall is when an airplane doesn’t have airflow over the control services over the wings to maintain flight.

“And then you can obviously clearly see it’s spinning. Pilots from day one are taught and learn what stalls are, how to recover from them because as you can see they can be deadly,” he said.

“Super unfortunate what happened, super sad I guess we will have to wait to see what happened.

“A terrible, terrible situation. It just goes to show you sometimes aviation as safe as it is, these things can happen so prayers and thoughts to the families and rest in peace to those who are no longer with us.”

He said a stall in aviation terms is when a plane doesn’t have airflow over the control services to maintain flight.

Pete’s TikTok has amassed 4 million views and thousands of comments from people, including those in aviation, shocked by the vision.

“That’s the worst kind of spin. It can be impossible to recover from a flat spin,” one person wrote.

“As a plane crash survivor, this is still my greatest fear. Absolutely devastating,” another added.

A third wrote: “As a flight attendant this kind of stall haunts me.”

Danilo Santos Romano has been identified as the pilot of the ill-fated plane. Picture: LinkedIn

According to Reuters, the cause of fatal plane crash remains unknown.

Investigators have, however, recovered the plane’s black box containing voice recordings and flight data, with a preliminary report expected within 30 days, the head of Brazil’s aviation accident investigation centre, Cenipa, said on Sunday.

Captain Danilo Santos Romano, 35, was the first victim named. He worked as a pilot for over a decade, and had been with the Voepass airline since 2022, according to his LinkedIn.

Romano was in the cockpit of the ATR 72-500 that went down in a residential neighbourhood in Vinhed on Friday. Picture: X

The pilot, who lived in Sao Paulo, had logged more than 4500 total flight hours, his profile said.

Romano was “always smiling” and “willing to help”, a colleague’s review read.

Romano was in the cockpit of the ATR 72-500 that went down in a residential neighbourhood in Vinhedo.

All 63 people on-board the flight died. All their remains have since been retrieved. Picture: X

On Saturday, Brazilian authorities finished recovering the bodies of the 62 people, including co-pilot Humberto de Campos Alencar e Silva, 61, and flight attendant Débora Soper Avila.

There were also several doctors on board who were heading to a seminar, as well as a father, Rafael Fernando dos Santos, and his daughter, Liz Ibba Dos Santos, three — the only known child aboard the doomed flight.

It is understood families of victims gathered on Sunday at a morgue and hotels in Sao Paulo as forensics experts work to identify the remains of the 62 people killed.

The plane took off from Cascavel at 11.56am local time Friday and was heading to Sao Paulo. It flew for about an hour and a half without incident, officials said.

The crew did not call for help or report any adverse weather conditions, according to the New York Post.

There was also no evidence that the crew tried to contact the controllers at nearby regional airports, Ports and Airports Minister Silvio Costa Filho told reporters Friday night.

The plane fell almost vertically, landed on its belly and exploded in flames, striking with such force that it was nearly “flattened”, said Sao Paulo fire lieutenant Olivia Perroni Cazo.

The plane’s black box will be analysed for possible clues about what caused the plane to plummet over 13,000 feet in just one minute.