KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 10 — A Voepass ATR 72-500 carrying 57 passengers and four crew crashed in Vinhedo, São Paulo, yesterday, killing everyone on board. The flight was en route from Cascavel to São Paulo’s Guarulhos airport.

AFP reported that images broadcast on local media showed a large plane spinning as it plummeted almost vertically, while other footage showed a large column of smoke rising from the crash site in what appeared to be a residential area.

In a report by DailyMail.com, an aviation expert shared insights on the likely cause for the ‘death spiral’ of a Brazil passenger jet today.

Captain Ross Aimer, who has more than 40 years of experience flying passenger jets in the US, told DailyMail.com that the crash could have been caused by a possible engine failure, flight control malfunction, or a critical part of the aircraft, such as the wing, falling off.

He noted that once a plane enters a death spiral, escape becomes extremely difficult.

According to DailyMail.com, Aimer said the most likely cause was that the aircraft suffered low speed stall.

He explained that this is when the airflow over the wings is too slow to provide enough lift and it happens when a plane moves too slow due to a technical fault, extreme turbulence, pilot error or something, like a bird, hitting the wing.

However, the airline said the plane was cruising at 17,000 feet, thus, the possibility of the plane hitting a bird was unlikely.

Videos on social media showed the plane stalling, then spinning before it crashed.