MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Brazil: Voepass grounded permanently

Voepass was found to no longer be trustworthy, hence the drastic measure

Brazil's National Civil Aviation Agency (ANAC) revoked the Air Operator Certificate (AOC) of Passaredo Transportes Aéreos, the main company in the Voepass group, after “serious and persistent flaws were identified in the company's Continuous Analysis and Supervision System,” Agencia Brasil reported. In addition, the company was fined R$570,400 (US$102,672).

The carrier made headlines when Flight 2Z-2283 fell while on approach at Sao Paulo's Guarulhos Airport, killing over 60 people onboard the French-built ATR-72 twin-engined aircraft.

The AOC is a document that authorizes a company to operate air transport services. According to the ANAC, the AOC represents “the company's responsibility and commitment to following the safety standards required in civil aviation.” Without IT, a company cannot fly commercially.

“The revocation of the AOC, at this time, is the result of the sanctioning process that was conducted after the precautionary suspension, and reinforces the Agency's commitment to the protection of passengers and the integrity of Brazilian civil aviation,” ANAC further noted in a statement.

Voepass had been grounded since March this year as a precaution. “The suspension will be in force until the correction of non-conformities related to the company's management systems provided for in regulations is proven,” the agency said at the time.

However, ANAC's board decided to revoke the certificate permanently since the company could not prove that these problems had been corrected. In April, filed for judicial recovery “to reorganize its financial commitments and strengthen its capital structure.”

ANAC found flaws in the execution of mandatory maintenance inspection items, which were neither detected nor corrected by the company's internal controls, which was “an indication that the company's supervision system had degraded, compromising its ability to act preventively.”

“It is important to emphasize that operational problems can be found and corrected in airlines. However, what ANAC identified in the case of Voepass was the loss of reliability of the internal mechanisms for detecting and correcting problems, as well as the characterization of a deviation from the maintenance procedures established for the company. In other words, the company's structure no longer offered guarantees that any faults would be dealt with before compromising the safety of operations,” ANAC's statement also pointed out.

Flight 2Z-2283 had taken off from Cascavel, in the State of Paraná, at 11.59 am and was flying at an altitude of 17,000 ft (5,200 m) when it spun out of control and entered a rapid descent at around 1.22 pm. All contact was reported lost at around 1.30 pm local time.