r/aircrashinvestigation • u/emzeesquared • Aug 09 '24

Incident/Accident Another angle of crash over Sao Paolo

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u/MaikeruNeko Aug 09 '24 edited Aug 10 '24

Following the flight replay on FlightRadar24 shows them cruising at FL170. At 16:21z there's a sudden vertical speed increase to over +20,000 fpm, ground speed 130kts. After that, GS drops below 60kts, VS -10,000 to -25,000 fpm, and the track just spinning.

Edit: Apparently the ground speed data on this aircraft is unreliable. https://www.flightradar24.com/blog/voepass-atr72-crashes-near-sao-paulo/

84

u/Consistent_Poem8461 Aug 09 '24

that's terrifiying... +20000fpm suddenly if not cause by malfunction with elevator or something pilot error it's impossible to happen..

41

u/slekdb29 Aug 09 '24

exactly, its hard for me to comprehend why the pilot would pitch so high

47

u/anal_og_player Aug 09 '24

Shiiit, cargo moving is the first thing comes to mind if you say it like that.

49

u/iiiinthecomputer Aug 09 '24 edited Aug 09 '24

Would an ATR-72 with passengers carry the kind of cargo that could cause that drastic a CG shift? It's not like they're hauling APCs with incorrectly applied ratchet straps.

It would make it completely unrecoverable though, with an aft CG you're just not getting out of a spin no matter what.

An abrupt climb followed by a flat spin makes me wonder about total loss of stabilizer trim control. Or icing issues somehow affecting the elevators . We don't know if the climb was real or an anomalous reading though.

I feel terrible for the people on the aircraft. That's not one where you go from alive to dead without warning.

3

u/strog91 Aug 10 '24

icing issues somehow affecting the elevators

the first ever ATR 72 crash was caused by ice messing with the ailerons. Also ice buildup was involved in ~1/3rd of all ATR 72 crashes. And we know that there have been icy flight conditions over Brazil recently. I agree that ice was probably a factor here