Deadly Brazil plane crash: Cockpit audio indicates de-icing problems'

The pilots of a Brazilian passenger plane that crashed last month, killing all 62 people aboard, reported failure in the system to remove ice from the plane, according to a preliminary report made public Friday.

Investigators in Brazil were careful to avoid saying this was the cause of the accident, and stressed there was more work to be done. Still, their report lent further credence to aviation experts' main hypothesis: that the lift loss had been caused by ice formation on the plane's wings and failure of its de-icing system.

Weather reports from the day of the accident predicted ice formation in the region where the plane went down.

Audio from the cockpit's voice recorder included comments from pilots indicating ice was accumulating and there was a failure in the de-icing system, Paulo Fróes, an investigator in the the air force's centre for the investigation and prevention of air accidents, told reporters in Brasilia.

Just two minutes before the crash, the copilot said, "A lot of ice." The plane's data recorder also indicated that its de-icing system, responsible for preventing ice build-up on wings, turned on and off several times, according to their report.

"There are still many doubts.