"Boarding Gate Mistake Saved Lives"…Passengers Who Missed Brazil Crash Plane with All Fatalities

About 10 People Who Intended to Board Flight 10, Waiting at Another Gate
Missed the Plane Just Before Takeoff but It Became a 'Blessing in Disguise'

On the 9th (local time), a passenger plane crashed in a residential area of S?o Paulo, Brazil, killing all 61 people on board. Meanwhile, a story emerged that some passengers who were supposed to board the ill-fated flight avoided the tragedy by mistakenly going to the wrong boarding gate and missing the flight.

According to CNN on the same day, around noon, more than 10 passengers who were supposed to board a passenger plane departing from Cascavel in Paran? state to Guarulhos in S?o Paulo state failed to board because they went to the wrong boarding gate.

The scene of the crash of a Brazilian passenger plane in which all 61 passengers on board died
[Photo by Yonhap News]

A male passenger who missed boarding the flight told Brazilian local media GloboTV, "At least 10 people waited at a different boarding gate and missed the flight just before takeoff." He said, "The staff told us, 'You cannot board this flight as the boarding time has already passed.' I pressured them, saying, 'Please let me board this flight,' but they said, 'There is no way. You have to rebook your ticket.'" Other passengers also realized late that they had gone to the wrong boarding gate and requested airport staff to allow them to board, but were refused.

However, the flight they missed crashed about 1 hour and 20 minutes after takeoff in a residential area near a highway in the Vinhedo region of S?o Paulo state, killing all on board. Upon hearing that the flight he intended to take had crashed, the male passenger said, "My legs are shaking," and sighed with relief, saying, "Only God knows how I feel. Fortunately, we did not board that flight."

The crashed plane was an ATR-72 twin-engine turboprop passenger aircraft operated by Voepass Airlines, headquartered in S?o Paulo, Brazil. The aircraft, with a capacity of 68, was carrying 57 passengers and 4 crew members, totaling 61 people at the time of the accident. So far, there have been no reports of casualties among residents in the area where the plane crashed.

Brazilian President Luiz In?cio Lula da Silva declared a three-day mourning period to honor the victims of this accident. He received news of the accident during an event in Santa Catarina in the south and, according to Brazilian media Folha de S?o Paulo, he observed a moment of silence with attendees, saying, "I have just received a tragic report."

On the 9th (local time), police arrived at the plane crash site in Vinhedo, S?o Paulo, Brazil.
[Photo by AFP Yonhap News]

Flight tracking site FlightRadar24 explained, "Analysis of data transmitted from the passenger plane shows it descended at a speed of 8,000 to 24,000 feet per minute during the last 60 seconds." Brazilian authorities plan to investigate the exact cause based on the black box recovered from the site. Guilherme Dehdt, Brazil's Minister of Public Security, stated, "The aircraft's black box was recovered intact." The Brazilian Federal Police have launched their own investigation, and ATR, the French-Italian joint aircraft manufacturer, said in a statement, "Experts are participating in a thorough investigation and supporting local authorities."

Meanwhile, there is a suggestion that icing due to weather conditions may have caused the accident. The local media GloboTV's weather center reported that "ice could form in the Vinhedo area" on that day. The Associated Press cited experts who pointed to icing as a potential cause of the crash. However, there are also counterarguments that weather conditions alone cannot fully explain why the aircraft crashed.

Regarding this accident, it has been confirmed so far that there are no casualties among Korean residents. The Korean Consulate General in S?o Paulo issued an emergency notice requesting, "Koreans residing in Brazil are asked to immediately contact us if they confirm boarding by second- or third-generation ethnic Koreans who do not use Korean surnames."