Adriano Assis, a resident of Rio de Janeiro, knows he is lucky. He finally escaped death as he was about to board the plane carrying 61 passengers that crashed outside the Brazilian city of Sao Paulo on Friday, killing everyone on board.
The plane, an ATR 72-500 operated by Voepass, was en route from Cascavel in the southern state of Paraná to Guarulhos International Airport in São Paulo when it crashed in the city of Vinhedo.
Due to a mix-up at the airport, Assis narrowly missed the two-hour flight.
He said when he arrived at the check-in counter at 9:40 a.m., departure information was missing and there was no one at the counter to answer questions.
“I arrived here at 9:40 a.m., the gate was closed but the flight was leaving. I was working at the Toledo Regional Hospital. When I arrived, I waited to see if they were open, usually there is always someone at the counter, but there was no one. I stayed upstairs, drank my coffee and waited. The microphone didn’t say anything, the boards didn’t say anything about the flight. When I came down, it was half past ten, there was a huge line here,” Assis told the Brazilian news channel. TV Globe.
When Assis later learned of the crash, he thanked airport staff and hugged the officer who had prevented him from boarding the plane.
“I waited and when it was about 10:41, the guy said I wasn’t going to continue. At that point, I argued with him and so on, and that was it. He saved my life. I hug him because he did his job. If he hadn’t done his job, I might not be doing this interview today,” Assis said.
Sharing the video on X, one user wrote: “This man was not allowed to board the plane that just crashed in Vinhedo in Sao Paulo, Brazil because he was late. He argued with the man at the gate but ended up hugging him after hearing that the plane had crashed. This is unbelievable.”
The plane crash is one of the world’s deadliest air crashes since January 2023, when 72 people died aboard a Yeti Airlines plane in Nepal that spun and crashed on approach to landing. That plane was also an ATR 72, and the final report blamed pilot error.
Following the crash, Brazilian authorities are trying to determine the exact cause of the crash in the state of São Paulo.
Published 10 August 2024, 10:54 IS
