MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Scammers pose as relatives of Voepass victims to ask for money

Paulo Sérgio de Oliveira e Costa met Monday with relatives of the victims of the crash

São Paulo's Attorney General (MPSP) Monday took down 12 fake social media profiles claiming to be relatives of victims of the doomed Voepass flight to ask for monetary assistance, Agencia Brasil reported. The scammers used photos of the victims in the process, it was also explained. The maneuver was detected with assistance from the MPSP's virtual crimes CyberGaeco unit.

At around 1.30 pm last Friday 62 people were killed when a French-built ATR-72 twin turboprop aircraft crashed in Vinhedo en route to Guarulhos International Airport.

São Paulo State Attorney General Paulo Sérgio de Oliveira e Costa met Monday with relatives of the victims of the crash. He pledged to cooperate with the federal probe into the accident.

“Every time there is an air crash, this is very much at the federal level, the investigations, the reports, there are national agencies that must, by law, constitutionally, and have attribution regarding this. But that doesn't stop the state Public Prosecutor's Office from carrying out its investigations given the accident occurring here in the state of São Paulo,” he argued.

Also participating in the investigation conducted by the Brazilian Air Force's (FAB) Center for Investigation and Prevention of Aeronautical Accidents (Cenipa) were teams from France's Bureau of Investigation and Analysis for Civil Aviation Safety, which is headquartered at the French company Avions de Transport Régional (ATR), the aircraft's manufacturer, and the Canadian Transportation Safety Board (TSB), which certifies the PW127M turboprop engines, developed and manufactured by Pratt & Whitney Canada, Agencia Brasil also explained. According to an FAB statement, the engines will be stored in São Paulo.

Cenipa is expected to deliver a preliminary report as to the causes of the accident in the next 30 days.