The mayor of Vinhedo, Dario Pacheco, assured today (10) that municipal bodies are mobilized to provide support to the city’s residents who were psychologically shaken by the crash of a plane belonging to the airline Voepass (formerly Passaredo) in the city, this Friday (9).
“Fortunately, we did not have any victims on land. We did have psychological trauma and some people are scared,” Pacheco explained. He added that yesterday (9), the city government mobilized to, if necessary, receive relatives of the victims who traveled to the city in search of information.
“The city hall prepared to receive the victims’ families, but as the bodies are being transported to [a cidade de] São Paulo […] no family came here. [Com isso] We are trying to help the people of Vinhedo, especially those who live near the accident site and who were very scared,” added the mayor when giving an interview to journalists, close to the place where the aircraft fell.
According to Voepass, 62 people were on board the ATR-72 turboprop that was operating flight 2283, including 58 passengers and four crew members. The plane had departed from Cascavel, in Paraná, bound for Guarulhos International Airport (SP), but crashed as it approached Viracopos Airport, in Campinas (SP). There were no survivors.
Falling into a tailspin
Videos recorded by witnesses to the accident and shared on social media recorded the plane’s downward spiral, spinning at high speed in the area of a residential condominium in Vinhedo, in the Capela neighborhood. Elton de Cassio Inarejos, a resident of the neighborhood, was one of those frightened by the disaster.
“I was at home when I heard a very loud noise, similar to a helicopter approaching. Since I have lived in this place for 27 years and the planes that come to Viracopos pass over my house, sometimes flying relatively low, I am already used to this and it took me a few seconds to notice that something was different,” Inarejos told Brazil Agency.
“Then the noise got louder, much louder than usual. And then I felt the whole house shake and then I heard what looked like an explosion,” added Inarejos, estimating that the Voepass aircraft crashed just over 500 meters from his home.
“Shortly after, my wife called me to see if I was okay. She was at her family’s house, nearby, and saw the plane falling, spinning in the air. And she called the fire department around 1:22 p.m. It was a big scare for everyone. Around 3 p.m., I went to the condominium, but the street was already blocked off. From where I got there, I couldn’t see much. The fire department was already controlling the flames. It’s sad. We hope we never see something like this, but luckily, the plane didn’t fall on the houses, making the tragedy worse,” concluded Elton de Cassio.
