The Brazilian airliner spun around before crashing, killing all 61 people on board

Written by Gabriel Araujo, Andre Romani, Luana Maria Benedito

SAO PAULO (Reuters) – A regional turboprop plane crashed near Sao Paulo in Brazil on Friday, killing all 61 people on board, the airline said.

Regional carrier Voepass said the plane, bound for Sao Paulo's international airport, took off from Cascavel, Parana state, and crashed around 1:30 pm (1630 GMT) in the town of Vinhedo, about 80 kilometers (50 miles) northwest of Sao Paulo.

A video shared on social media shows the ATR-72 aircraft spinning out of control while plunging behind trees near houses, followed by a huge plume of black smoke.

Nearby resident Daniel de Lima said he heard a loud noise before looking outside the house where he lives in Vinhedo when he saw the plane horizontal.

“It was going around, but it wasn't moving,” he told Reuters. “Just after that it fell from the sky and exploded.”

City officials in Valinhos, near Vinhedo, said there were no survivors and only one house was damaged in the local center and none of the residents were injured.

“I believe the pilot tried to avoid a close, crowded area,” de Lima said.

Authorities did not immediately say what caused the crash, although the head of Brazil's air accident investigation agency Cenipa said the plane's so-called “black box” containing recorded voices and flight data was found at the scene.

The video of the accident shows clear weather, the forecast for the area says there will be light rain and wind speed of 10 km per hour (6 mph).

John Hansman, a professor in the department of aeronautics and astronomy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, reviewed some of the photos shared on social media and without reviewing the details of the flight said the crash did not appear to be caused by weather.

“It could be the failure of the engine on the other side that was not handled well by the workers,” he said. “It could be the propulsion of the engine that has already started to spin down.”

US aviation safety adviser and former commercial pilot John Cox said he would like to confirm the Flightradar data, which shows a high speed, but no matter what happened something “really significant” caused the plane to spin on landing.

“We don't change planes,” Cox said. “So it means that at some point it stalled and the flight crew lost control. But it appears that there was a disaster before that loss of control.”

Cenipa head Marcelo Moreno warned in a press conference that it is too early to determine the cause of the accident.

“From what we can tell so far, the plane did not reach traffic control and report an emergency,” Moreno said.

Voepass, Brazil's fourth-largest airline by market, said it could not provide further details on what caused the plane to crash. It reported 62 people on the flight, although local media interviewed a man who said he missed the flight.

In total, the plane was carrying 57 passengers and four crew members, Voepass said.

Franco-Italian ATR, jointly owned by Airbus and Leonardo, is a leading manufacturer of regional turboprop aircraft with seating for 40 to 70 people.

ATR told Reuters that its experts were “fully involved” in the accident investigation along with its clients.

The engine on the plane was a PW 127 manufactured by Pratt & Whitney Canada, whose parent company RTX Corp confirmed to Reuters. RTX said it provided assistance in the investigation.

Both French and Canadian investigators will participate in the investigation, Moreno said. The European security regulator also said it would provide technical assistance.

The crash is the deadliest in Brazil since 199 people died in 2007 on a flight operated by TAM, which later merged with LAN to become what is now LATAM Airlines (NYSE:).