Helicopter crashed while trying to return to SP, police say

Preliminary investigations into the crash of the helicopter that was going from São Paulo to Ilhabela on December 31st reveal that the pilot of the aircraft was trying to return to the capital of São Paulo when it crashed in the forest. The wreckage was located this Friday morning (12) in Paraibuna, in Vale do Paraíba. Nobody survived.

In dialogue with the operator of the helipad where he would land, pilot Cassiano Tete Teodoro spoke about the bad weather and said he was having difficulty crossing the mountain.

The pilot even made an emergency landing in Paraibuna. He took off and, according to police, crashed a few minutes later. The distance between the landing area and the place where the wreckage was found is approximately 10 kilometers. One of the passengers sent her boyfriend a photo of the landing point, but she didn't know the exact location.

Delegate Paulo Sérgio Rios Campos Melo, director of the Department of Strategic Police Operations (Dope), of the São Paulo Civil Police, stated that “based on the sequence of antennas and the times at which he passed”, it is possible to conclude that the pilot would be trying to return to Campo de Marte airport, in the city of São Paulo.

“He left [do local onde a aeronave havia pousado]he flew a little, he tried to escape the clouds to return to São Paulo and unfortunately he couldn’t”, says Campos Melo.

Colonel Ronaldo Barreto de Oliveira, head of the São Paulo Military Police Aviation Command, also stated that it is still not possible to clarify what caused the crash. However, he mentions that adverse weather conditions probably contributed to the accident.

“He [o piloto] You can get into bad weather, lose visibility and situational awareness and become disoriented. It’s common for those who inadvertently enter the cloud space,” he explains.

In addition to Cassiano, businessman Raphael Torres, 41, merchant Luciana Rodzewics, 46, and her daughter, Letícia, 20, were on board.