The shattered dreams of Venezuelans who died in the Brazilian crash

Photo: Andre Penner Associated Press A plane carrying 61 people crashed Friday in Vinhedo, Brazil, smashing into the backyard of a home in a residential area.

Lucia Lacurcia – Agence France-Presse À Vinhedo

Published yesterday at 21:39

• Amériques

Together with his son and mother, Josgleidys had boarded the plane for a long journey that would allow them to see their native Venezuela again. But the dreams of the young woman and her family were shattered when their plane crashed in Brazil.

The Venezuelans who had emigrated to Brazil were among the 62 people — 58 passengers and four crew members — aboard the plane when it crashed Friday in a residential area of ​​the city of Vinhedo, in the state of São Paulo.

Josgleidys Gonzalez was 25, and her baby Joslan was just a few months old, when they arrived four years ago in Cascavel, a city of 350,000 people in the state of Parana, in southern Brazil, where she was a cashier in a supermarket, Thaiza Evangelista, one of her friends, told Agence France-Presse (AFP). Brazilian.

Like Josgleidys, her son and his mother, Maria Gladys Parra, some 7.7 million people have left Venezuela in recent years because of the severe political and economic crisis there, according to the UN.

But for this family, the Brazilian experience had been disappointing because of the cost of living. She had therefore decided to go to Colombia, after a planned stop in Venezuela for administrative procedures.

“They intended to go to Colombia because they had relatives there and they would not have had to pay for accommodation because here, the hardest thing was the rent,” explains Mrs. Evangelista, who, in the weeks before leaving, had helped the family with their preparations.

With the dog Luna

The 52-year-old Brazilian animal rights activist also convinced her friend to take their six-month-old dog, Luna. She even started a collection to cover the extra costs, especially for Joslan, she says, “who cried non-stop because he didn’t want to leave her.”

Their journey began with the flight to São Paulo. Then they were to take another plane to Boa Vista and from there, board a van to Pacaraima, near the border, and finally a bus that would take 12 hours to reach their hometown in Venezuela, the industrial city of Ciudad Bolivar.

200% Deposit Bonus up to €3,000 180% First Deposit Bonus up to $20,000

“She sent me a final message at 11:16 (12:16 in Montreal): everything was going well and they were going to get on the plane,” Thaiza Evangelista recalls.

Later, Thaiza Evangelista began receiving messages about a plane crash on its way to São Paulo.

“I was desperate, I spoke to everyone, the list [of victims] was not coming out, until I had confirmation that it was this flight,” she confided by phone from Cascavel, where friends and neighbors gathered after the tragic news.

Voepass Airlines confirmed that on board Flight 2283 were Josgleidys, Maria Gladys and Joslan, as well as their dog Luna.

“A warrior”

Josgleidys was “a warrior” and she “was very loved. “It's very difficult to maintain gentleness, honesty, integrity, having been through so many hard things,” her friend emphasizes.

Neirelis Orta, a 33-year-old Venezuelan who had also emigrated to Brazil and had been living in Cascavel since February, worked with Josgleidys at the supermarket.

“She was saving up to go and get these papers” for her son in Venezuela, she explained to AFP. “It makes me very sad, to deprive yourself of so many things, of eating, of buying yourself an item of clothing that you like because you have a project, a trip, and that your dreams end like that, all of a sudden.”

“We are devastated and all we say is that she didn't deserve this. Full of illusions, of dreams. It's awful. »

What we know about the accident

Flight 2283, operated by the Brazilian company Voepass, left Cascavel, in the state of Parana, at 11:56 (12:56 in Montreal) for Guarulhos International Airport in São Paulo. It disappeared from the radar 1 hour and 26 minutes after takeoff.

The plane crashed at 1:25 p.m. in Vinhedo, about 80 km northwest of São Paulo, breaking up in the garden of a house in a residential area.

The plane was a twin-engine aircraft from the Franco-Italian manufacturer ATR, model 72-500, with double propellers, a length of 27 meters and a capacity of 68 passengers. It had been manufactured in France. According to the flight tracking site Flight Radar 24, the plane flew for nearly an hour at 17,000 feet (5,180 meters). At 1:21 p.m., it began to lose altitude and within a minute it dropped sharply to 4,100 feet (1,250 meters).

The aircraft lost contact with the control tower at 1:22 p.m., without having previously reported an “emergency situation” or “adverse weather conditions,” according to the Brazilian Air Force.

Brazil’s Center for Investigation and Prevention of Aeronautical Accidents has opened an investigation to determine the causes of the disaster and plans to publish a preliminary report within 30 days. According to the National Civil Aviation Agency, the aircraft, which had been flying since 2010, complied with all applicable standards and had the required authorizations.

Agence France-Presse