The aircraft was an Embraer 190 which was built in October 2012, it was registered as C9-EMC and named "Chaimite". The aircraft was reported to have 2905 flight hours. The airframe and the engines were last inspected the day before the crash. The passengers were from Mozambique, Angola, Portugal, Brazil, France and China. The pilot of Flight TM470 has been identified as Herminio dos Santos Fernandes. 

Chairman Abreu stated the pilot's motives were unknown. He further stated the copilot was not in the cockpit when the plane went down. It has been reported that the pilot logged 9,053 flight hours, his license was renewed in 2012 and he underwent a medical exam in September. The copilot could be heard on the aircraft flight recorders black box banging on the cockpit door trying to gain entrance to the cockpit. 

It was reported the aircraft was cruising at an altitude of 38,000 feet over Botswanan airspace. Halfway between Maputo and Luanda, Flight TM470 began a rapid descent, 100 feet per second. The aircraft was tracked by radar down to 3,000 above sea level. Air traffic control lost radio contact Embraer 190 over northern Namibia. The weather at the time was reported to be heavy rain with low visibility.