PTB2283 - ATR-72 crash near Sao Paulo 9 August 2024

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ASN link: https://asn.flightsafety.org/wikibase/409335


This accident is likely related to prolonged flight in severe icing conditions, leading to an unrecoverable stall / flat spin. Flat spins in multi engine aircraft are generally considered next to impossible to recover from due to the significant mass extending from the center of gravity (engines) out on the wings.

I'm attaching a kmz and csv file of the data RT has on file for this accident. Unfortunately, that generation aircraft only provides partial information on the autopilot state. The suspicion is that they flew into severe icing with the autopilot on, so they were unaware of the increasingly out of trim situation. The general rule in severe icing in any aircraft is a) get out ASAP b) do so while hand flying, so you're aware of the trim situation (i.e. the aircraft getting increasingly tail heavy).