The tragedy of the plane that crashed this Friday in Vinhedo, in the state of Sao Paulo (Brazil), causing the death of the 61 occupants, has also left the story of a miracle, that of the passenger who was not allowed to board and was able to save his life. In fact, initially it was reported that there were 62 people deceased, but Adriano Assis had not taken the flight.
Visibly emotional, Assis recounted the miracle of his salvation on Globo TV, as reported by local media. He was planning to take the flight from Cascavel to Sao Paulo, to then board another plane to his place of residence in Rio de Janeiro.
He arrived at the airport at 9:40 in the morning, ready to take a flight operated by Latam, but the flight had been reassigned to Voepass, without his knowledge. So he found the airline counter closed and decided to wait in the cafeteria.
An hour later, with no information available, he returned to the counter and found a long line. When he was finally attended to, an airline employee informed him that boarding had taken place an hour earlier and that he could not board the plane.
"I argued with him, but he didn't let me board. Today I want to thank him, because if he hadn't done his job, maybe I wouldn't be here giving this interview," Assis said with tears in his eyes.
The aircraft, a twin-engine ATR-72-500 model, was flying between the city of Cascavel and São Paulo and crashed shortly before 13:25 local time (16:25 GMT), with about 80 kilometers left to reach Guarulhos airport, its destination.
The plane was flying at about 3,500 meters altitude and plummeted in about a minute, according to data from the specialized website Flightradar.
The vertical fall was filmed from various angles by several residents of Vinhedo, in videos that were widely shared on social media. Several witnesses said they heard a loud noise before seeing the plane crash.
Sao Paulo police stated that there were no casualties on the ground because the plane fell in "an empty area" within the Recanto Florido condominium, an upscale residential area.