One of the 62 passengers killed when a plane crashed in Brazil warned her family she was “very scared” as the ill-fated flight took off.
Rosana Xavier, 23, sent a series of messages to the WhatsApp group chat on Friday morning as Voepass flight 2283 was ascending.
‘Man, two hours of flight,’ he wrote at 11:47 a.m. in a message shared by his mother, Rosemeire Xavier. with TV Globo.
“We’ll arrive in the rain. I’m really scared of this flight,” added Rosana Xavier. “I swear. The plane is old.”
A minute later, he texted his loved ones: “There’s a broken seat. I swear. It’s chaos.”
Rosana Xavier shares a selfie with her family in a WhatsApp group chat just a minute after Voepass Airlines Flight 2283 took off from Cascavel Regional Airport in Cascavel, Paraná. The flight was heading to São Paulo/Guarulhos International Airport in São Paulo and crashed in the São Paulo town of Vinhedo.
Rosana Xavier sent a message to her family as Voepass Airlines Flight 2283 was ascending, expressing concern for the turboprop plane before it crashed, killing all 62 people on board: “Man, two hours of flight. We’re going to arrive in the rain. I’m so scared of this flight, I swear. The plane is old. There’s a broken seat. I swear. Chaos.”
A worried Xavier then took a selfie with a stone face and shared it with his family.
The Voepass ATR-72 turboprop aircraft took off from Cascavel Regional Airport at 11:46 a.m. in Cascavel, Paraná and was heading to São Paulo/Guarulhos International Airport in São Paulo. It fell from the sky and crashed into the backyard of a condominium building in the city of Vinhedo, in the state of São Paulo.
The Brazilian Air Force said in a statement that the aircraft was flying normally at 1:20 p.m., but after 1:21 p.m. the plane did not respond to air traffic control.
Rosemeire Xavier revealed that she asked her daughter to read a Bible verse to calm her fears, although she was also worried.
He found out about the accident through a news report on television.
“I was desperate,” she said. “I started running around the house screaming.”
Rosana Xavier was flying back to her home in Franco de Rocha, São Paulo, after attending her monthly work meetings in Toledo, Paraná.
An aerial view of the wreckage of the Voepass plane next to the condominium where it crashed on Friday in Vinhedo, a city in the state of São Paulo, in southeastern Brazil. All 58 passengers and four crew members were killed.
Rosemeire Xavier said her daughter worked remotely from the family home in the city of Franco de Rocha in São Paulo, but had to attend meetings twice a month in Toledo, Paraná.
“She helped with the shopping at home and had bought her own car,” said the grieving mother. “All she had was for me, my husband and my girls. She only thought about us. Her money was for helping at home.”
First responders recovered the bodies of the 34 male passengers and 28 female passengers on Saturday.
As of Monday, only 17 victims had been identified, including the pilot, Danilo Romano, and his co-pilot, Humberto de Silva.