The hills don't make it impossible, but they prevent the smooth descent that represents standard procedure.
Hills and power transmission lines in Caratinga region complicate pilot visibility during approach, requiring additional caution according to flight safety specialists. Expert analysis suggests the aircraft descended lower than recommended and struck an unsignaled steel cable, causing rapid speed loss and structural failure.
- Five people died: singer Marília Mendonça, producer Henrique Ribeiro, assessor Abicieli Silveira Dias Filho, and two pilots
- Twin-engine Beech King Air aircraft struck unmarked high-voltage steel cable and crashed into waterfall near Caratinga, Minas Gerais on November 5, 2021
- Aircraft descended lower than recommended altitude before impact, causing rapid airspeed loss and structural failure
- Marília Mendonça, 26, was a leading figure in 'feminejo'—the female-led movement that reshaped Brazilian sertanejo music starting around 2016
Aviation experts cite terrain obstacles and unsignaled power lines as visibility hazards at Caratinga airport where singer Marília Mendonça's plane crashed, killing five people.
The hills surrounding Caratinga's small airport create a persistent problem for pilots attempting to land there—one that experts say likely played a role in the crash that killed singer Marília Mendonça and four others on November 5, 2021.
Sérgio Luís Mourão, a pilot and flight safety specialist who has operated at the Caratinga airport multiple times, explained that the terrain forces pilots to make constant adjustments during their approach. The hills don't make the airport impossible to use, he said, but they do prevent the smooth, stabilized descent that represents standard procedure. Instead of maintaining a steady glide path, pilots must constantly recalibrate their angle to account for the obstacles rising around them. Beyond the hills themselves, high-voltage transmission lines crisscross the area—and many of them are not marked with warning signals. Even thick cables become nearly invisible from the air unless they are properly flagged, Mourão noted.
Roberto Peterka, another aviation safety expert, offered a more specific assessment of what happened. The aircraft, a twin-engine Beech King Air built in 1984, was descending lower than regulations recommended when it struck an unmarked steel cable carrying high-voltage power. The impact caused the plane to lose airspeed rapidly. An airplane cannot sustain flight without sufficient velocity; once that speed dropped, the aircraft lost lift and fell from the sky. Peterka pointed out that pilots receive Notam notifications—alerts about hazards at specific coordinates—that should have informed the crew about the towers and lines in the area. But knowing about them and seeing them in poor visibility conditions are two different things.
Marília Mendonça, 26, was one of Brazil's most prominent sertanejo singers, a genre traditionally dominated by men until she and others helped spark what became known as "feminejo"—a female-led movement that reshaped the commercial landscape of Brazilian country music starting around 2016. Born in Cristianópolis, Goiás, in 1995, she had achieved massive popularity with songs like "Infiel," "De quem é a culpa?," and "Eu sei de cor." She was traveling to Caratinga for a scheduled performance that evening. With her on the aircraft were her producer, Henrique Ribeiro; her uncle and assessor, Abicieli Silveira Dias Filho; and the pilot and copilot, whose names were withheld at the time. The plane departed from Goiânia and crashed into a waterfall roughly two kilometers from the runway.
Investigators from Cenipa, Brazil's aeronautical accident investigation center, arrived at the crash site to begin their work. The location itself presented immediate challenges—the wreckage lay in difficult terrain near a waterfall, with risk of the structure sliding into the water. Officials were evaluating whether to move the aircraft to a safer location to conduct a thorough examination. The twin-engine aircraft, which had a maximum capacity of 4,700 kilograms and could carry up to six passengers, was properly registered and authorized for charter operations, according to Brazil's National Civil Aviation Agency.
One significant gap in the investigation became apparent: the aircraft was not required by law to carry a flight data recorder, and it remained unclear whether this particular plane had one installed. To compensate, investigators immediately requested all audio recordings from air traffic control covering the aircraft's flight from takeoff through its final radio contact. Those recordings had been segregated and preserved, though investigators had not yet reviewed them at the time of the initial report.
The five deaths sent shockwaves through Brazil's music industry and beyond. Mendonça left behind a two-year-old son, Léo, who would turn two in December. Her impact on Brazilian popular music—opening doors for women in a male-dominated genre and achieving chart dominance in the process—meant her loss resonated far beyond the immediate circle of family and colleagues. The investigation into exactly what sequence of decisions and circumstances led the aircraft into that waterfall continued, with the terrain that made Caratinga's airport challenging now also making the recovery and analysis of the wreckage a complex undertaking.
Notable Quotes
These hills sometimes obstruct pilot visibility during approach. The presence of obstacles prevents a stabilized approach and forces the pilot to make adjustments to align with the runway.— Sérgio Luís Mourão, pilot and flight safety specialist
The aircraft struck the steel cable, which caused it to lose speed rapidly. Without sufficient velocity, the airplane lost lift and fell.— Roberto Peterka, aviation safety expert
The Hearth Conversation Another angle on the story
Why does terrain matter so much at a small airport like Caratinga? Don't pilots train for different landing conditions?
They do train for it, but training and execution are different things. The hills don't just sit there passively—they force the pilot to constantly adjust the approach angle. You can't fly a smooth, stable descent. You're always correcting, always recalculating. That's where mistakes happen.
And the power lines—surely they're marked somehow?
That's the thing. Many of them aren't. A thick cable should be visible, you'd think, but from the air at a certain angle and speed, it's nearly invisible. The pilot gets a notification about their location, but seeing a notification and actually spotting the line in real time are completely different problems.
So the pilot knew the lines were there but couldn't see them?
Likely. And if you're already flying lower than you should be—which the evidence suggests happened here—you're running out of margin for error. Hit the cable, lose speed, lose lift. It happens very fast.
Was this airport unsafe to operate?
No. It operates regularly. But it requires more caution, more precision, more awareness than a flat, open airport. It's manageable if everything goes right. The problem is when conditions align against you.
What does the investigation need to determine now?
Whether the descent was too low from the start, whether the crew saw the cable, whether they tried to avoid it. The audio recordings from air traffic control will help answer some of that. But the terrain itself—that's already part of the story.