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Brazil’s federal police have formally accused 16 current and former employees of the Voepass airline of actions contributing to the August 2024 crash that killed all 62 people on board the plane.
Investigators on Thursday announced several acts of alleged malpractice, omission and negligence by the company.
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Voepass owner and president Jose Luiz Felicio Filho was among those formally accused over 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.
Aside from the owner, the police accused 15 former and present Voepass 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 happened when an ATR 72-500 twin-engine turboprop en route from Cascavel, in the southern state of Parana, to Guarulhos international airport plummeted 13,000 feet (3,960 metres) into the back yard of a gated condominium, killing 58 passengers and four crew members.
Investigators added that the aircraft’s data recorders showed that its de-icing system had repeatedly failed or was manually cycled on and off during 136 flights.
Federal police investigator Andre 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 the National Civil Aviation Agency of Brazil (ANAC).
Two-year investigation
Thalles Andrade, a lawyer for the families of the victims, said in a statement that he will seek damages “against everyone responsible, people and companies, including directors, companies involved in the operation and in ticket sales”.
“We will go for everyone who, by action or omission, contributed to this,” Andrade said.
The 16 people formally accused in the case did not make comments about the federal police move.
The federal police findings were announced in a news conference after a two-year investigation. The force concluded that deliberate omissions, improper maintenance practices, and organisational 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, mechanical system failures and pilot distractions contributed to the incident.
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