SAO PAULO (AP) — Brazil’s federal police on Thursday formally accused 16 current and former employees of airline Voepass for the Aug. 9, 2024 plane crash that killed all 62 people on board. Investigators named several acts of alleged malpractice, omission and negligence by the company.
Voepass owner and president José Luiz Felicio Filho was among those formally accused for the accident that took place in the city of Vinhedo, outside Sao Paulo. Local prosecutors must still decide whether he and the other accused will be charged at a date to be determined.
Brazil’s federal police also accused 15 Voepass former and present employees of endangering air traffic safety resulting in a fatal disaster, which could put them in prison for up to 12 years. Additional charges against some of the group include the omission of technical failures from aircraft logbooks.
The accident took happened when an ATR 72-500 twin-engine turboprop en route from Cascavel, in the southern state of Paraná, to Guarulhos international airport plummeted 13,000 feet into the backyard of a gated condominium, killing 58 passengers and four crew members.
Investigators added that the aircraft’s data recorders showed its de-icing system repeatedly failed or was manually cycled on and off during 136 flights.
Federal police investigator André Ribeiro said the aircraft was irregularly cleared for departure into known severe icing conditions despite experiencing de-icing system failures on three prior flights that same day.
“This is a watershed in air crash disasters here,” said Ribeiro, who also suggested prosecutors should look into new potential accusations against Brazil’s government’s aviation agency ANAC.
The federal police findings were announced in a press conference after a two-year investigation. The force concluded that deliberate omissions, improper maintenance practices, and organizational failures directly contributed to sending the aircraft into dangerous weather conditions.
Last month, a Brazilian air force probe confirmed that a combination of severe icing conditions, as well as mechanical system failures and pilot distractions, contributed to the country’s most deadly air crash since 2007.
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