Two people who were scheduled to board the ill-fated VoePass plane that crashed in Brazil, killing all 62 people on board, claimed on Friday that a mistake allowed them to miss the flight and avoid death.
The two passengers, who were due to board an ATR 72 twin-engine turboprop plane, told Brazilian media they missed their flight, which ultimately proved fatal. One passenger said they were part of a group of 10 people who missed the ill-fated flight.
The man, Adriano Assis, told Globonews he had finished working at a hospital and arrived at the LATAM counter at around 9:40 a.m. to catch an 11:56 a.m. flight from Cascavel to Guarulhos.
Plane crashes in Brazil, killing all 62 passengers and crew, airline VOEPAS announces
The plane they were traveling on, VoePass Flight 2283, crashed into a residential area of the Brazilian city of Vinhedo, killing all 62 people on board. (Fox)
Assis said he noticed there was no attendant at the LATAM counter, so he sipped his coffee while watching the departure and arrival screens to get the latest updates on Flight 2283.
“Mike didn’t say anything and the board didn’t say anything about flying,” he said.
He said he realized he’d actually booked his flight with an airline called VoePass, not LATAM, and then headed to the counter, but there was a long line, and by the time he reached an agent it was too late to enter the country.
“The attendant said we probably wouldn’t be able to board because there was an hour left until boarding,” Assis said.
He said he pleaded with the attendant to be allowed to board the plane but the attendant refused.
“I had arguments with him and stuff but that’s it. He saved my life,” he told media, his eyes filling with emotion and tears. “He did his job. If he hadn’t done that, I might not be doing this interview today. I’m sorry.”
VoePass Flight 2283 crashed into a residential area in the city of Vinhedo with 57 passengers and four crew on board, according to the Associated Press.
Footage showed the plane descending vertically and spiraling as it fell. The wreckage scene was engulfed in flames and smoke coming from the mangled fuselage of the plane. Firefighters, military police and civil defense officials all sent teams to the crash site.
Another passenger, Jose Felipe, said he was part of a group of 10 people who made the same mistake.
“I was planning to leave on LATAM Airlines, which was closed,” he told GloboNews.
“Thank goodness we weren’t on that plane. We didn’t know we were with that company. [VoePass]I thought I would be on a LATAM flight, but LATAM flights were cancelled. [at the airport] And I waited and I waited, and nothing happened.”
When he found the attendant, he pressured him to let him onto the plane.
“Sir, we have to get on this plane. We have to go,” Felipe told airline staff, but the staff refused to let him board, saying the boarding time had passed.
“And he said there is no way, so all I can do is reschedule your ticket,” Felipe said.
Southwest Airlines plane bound for Hawaii dives, comes within 400 feet of Pacific Ocean: Report
An aerial photo of the wreckage. (Miguel Sincariolu/AFP)
The Capella area where the plane crashed is far from the city center, which is home to 77,000 people.
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva broke the news at an event in southern Brazil on Friday, asking the crowd to stand and observe a minute’s silence.
A VoePass staff member at Guarulhos airport told The Associated Press that the company had notified the victims’ families and was supporting them in private rooms at the airport.
He said all passengers and crew on board appeared to have been killed, but did not elaborate on how he had received that information.
Aviation expert and former pilot Arthur Rosenberg said video from the flight appears to show the aircraft stalling in the air.
“A stall is when the plane can’t move forward fast enough and maintain lift to stay in the air,” he told Fox News Channel’s “The Story.” “The sound told us there was something wrong with one or both of the engines.”
This photo shows an aerial view of the wreckage of a plane that crashed with 62 passengers on board in Vinhedo, Sao Paulo state, Brazil on August 10, 2024. (Nelson Almeida/AFP)
Radar data showed a “rapid drop” that could be due to engine failure or some other malfunction, he said.
“It looked like we fell 17,000 feet in about two minutes,” Rosenberg said.
The airliner is an ATR 72-500 twin-engine turboprop aircraft used for short-haul flights.
Click here to get the FOX News app
The plane’s manufacturer, the Franco-Italian ATR, said in a statement that its experts were “doing all they can to assist both the investigation and our customer.”
The plane’s black boxes, or flight data recorders, have been recovered by authorities.
Fox News’ Greg Norman and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
