Aircraft characteristics indicate that there was loss of lift, says expert

The Brazilian Air Force (FAB) began to investigate the reasons for the accident that killed singer Marília Mendonça and part of her team. According to aeronautical consultant Roberto Peterka, an expert in air accidents, some photographs of the aircraft, which crashed 3 km from Caratinga airport, the city where the singer would perform, show that there was a loss of support.

“He basically lost flight lift, and in that case, the pilot loses his flight controls. The commands have no actuation.”

Peterka emphasized that, until the investigation comes to an end, all hypotheses will be open. “The plane’s nose is impacted. His structure is practically intact. Only with deformations on the wings that indicate that it came from the top down, in that same position, just rotating. The tail, at the back, has a small twist, which would characterize a sharp drop and a slight twist. All of this ends up indicating that he had a loss of support”, he explains.

The role of the investigation, therefore, will be to identify the reasons that led to this loss of support, believes Peterka. “The investigation can see if there was an instrument error or if there was an emergency that forced the pilot to lower the recommended flight level.”

Regarding this height limit, the expert says that, according to Brazilian legislation, “on top of an uninhabited area, the plane must be 300 feet — about 100 meters — above the highest obstacle.” Therefore, the aircraft with the singer and her team should be 100 meters above the tower with the high voltage cables. “The causes that led him to come lower is not known.”

Peterka narrated a possible movement for the aircraft. He says that the collision with steel cables that support the towers “was the main factor in the accident.” According to him, from then on the pilot could have completely lost control over the plane.

“Everything indicates that he fell vertically and with a great impact on the ground. Apparently that’s what it indicates. Because there is no trail. There’s no other spot he collided with, there’s no tree, there’s nothing. It went down, with high impact, due to the loss of lift and, consequently, the loss of control of the pilots over it.”