SAO PAULO, Brazil (CNN) -- Heavy black smoke poured into the air and bright orange flames lit the night sky in Sao Paulo after a passenger plane skidded across a road and crashed into a building Tuesday. At least 200 people were killed.

1 of 2 A TAM Airlines Airbus 320 carrying 176 people crashed while attempting to land in heavy rain at Sao Paulo's Congonhas Airport, the airline said.

The Sao Paulo fire department said at least 200 people, including some on the ground, were dead at the scene.

There was no immediate word on survivors.

Witnesses said the plane skidded across a major road at rush hour. Reports that the plane struck a gas station could not be confirmed, but a massive fire broke out.

The plane apparently struck a building bearing the airline's logo at the small domestic airport in the heart of the city. At least 50 rescue vehicles were at the scene, firefighters said. The fire continued to burn into the night.

Paulo Barros told the Brazilian newspaper O Globo that he was getting ready to board a flight to Brasilia on another runway when the plane crashed.

"We saw the plane go straight down the runway. It didn't manage to stop and went into the avenue. It went by so fast that we thought it was taking off," Barros said.

Flight JJ3054 was coming to Sao Paulo from Porto Alegre in southern Brazil, the airline said.

The airport is notorious for having short, slippery runways, CNN's Miles O'Brien reported. The runway was recently resurfaced but the cutting of grooves to channel rainwater off the pavement had not been completed, he said.

A Brazilian court in February banned large jets at the busy airport because of safety concerns, The Associated Press reported. But an appeals court overruled the ban, saying it would hurt business and that the safety problems did not warrant halting air traffic, according to AP.

The airline said it could not immediately confirm the extent of the damage or the number of victims. Family members of those on the plane were being given assistance, it said.

"I was surprised by a ball of fire in front of my window," Deisy Oliveira, who lives by the airport, told O Globo.

"The atmosphere is tense and nervous, because nobody really knows what happened. Since the plane hit the building and a gas station, you can't tell exactly where the explosion happened."

The airport's main runway was closed for several weeks at one point while it was repaired because of a problem with water collecting on the runway, Tom Hennigan, a reporter from The Times of London in Sao Paulo, told CNN. It was too early, however, to say whether that may have contributed to Tuesday's incident, he said.

The airport is small and in a densely populated area, he said.

"When you fly into Congonhas airport, it is like you are literally flying past people's living rooms in apartment blocks," Hennigan said. "Then you land on the runway. It is completely surrounded by the central part of Sao Paulo city. This is not an airport out on the edge of the city. This is right in the city."

According to AP, Brazil's deadliest crash before Tuesday occurred last September when a Gol Aerolinhas Inteligentes SA Boeing 737 collided with an executive jet over the Amazon rainforest, killing 154 people. The executive jet landed safely.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/americas/07/17/brazil.pla...?eref=rss_topstories

Crash revives Brazil air-safety fears
BY JACK CHANG
McClatchy News Service

RIO DE JANEIRO -- After nearly 10 months of turmoil in this country's air traffic system, the passenger jet crash late Tuesday that claimed at least 189 lives has raised red flags around the world about the ability of Brazilian authorities to secure the country's airways.

Many are asking whether government negligence contributed to the accident in which an Airbus 320 operated by the Brazilian airline TAM skidded off the rain-slicked main runway at the country's busiest airport, Congonhas in Sao Paulo, and crashed into a gas station and cargo terminal.

The air crash, which was Brazil's deadliest, followed a Sept. 29, 2006, midair collision over the Brazilian Amazon rain forest that killed 154 people and had been the country's deadliest air accident until then.

The International Federation of Air Traffic Controllers Associations, representing more than 50,000 members, warned in a statement Wednesday night that Brazil is currently in a ''very deep'' crisis ``where air safety cannot be guaranteed anymore as the system is operated at its limits and without the required safety margins.''

Brazilian air officials insisted Wednesday the system was safe and suggested that the passenger jet's pilots had been flying too fast while landing Tuesday, although they said investigations were just beginning.

The bulk of public attention, however, has focused on conditions at Congonhas, where at least four previous planes had skidded off the main runway, without producing casualties, during rains since last year, including one the day before Tuesday's crash. Another flight operated by TAM crashed on takeoff from Congonhas in 1996, killing 99 people.

Air officials said they had taken care of the main problem -- flooding on the main runway -- by repaving it. Yet they reopened the runway late last month without installing its sole drainage system, grooves in the asphalt designed to channel off water, said Kriscia Proncia, a spokeswoman for the airport authority Infraero.

Those grooves are scheduled to be installed by September, but the work could be moved up in response to Tuesday's accident, said Armando Schneider Filho, the airport authority's superintendent of engineering, in a tense news conference Wednesday night.

Schneider Filho insisted that initial inquiries suggested flooding on the runway had not caused Tuesday's accident, which occurred in a steady rain. Airport authorities are required to close the runway if more than a tenth of an inch of water accumulates. Federal prosecutors in Sao Paulo filed a motion Wednesday night asking that the airport be closed while investigations continue.

Flying from the southern Brazilian city of Porto Alegre, the Airbus 320, which carried 186 people, had touched down on the runway within its first 984 feet, the recommended area of landing, said Brazilian air force Brig. Jorge Kersul Filho, chief of the country's accident investigations unit.

However, the plane veered left, escaped the airfield, crossed busy Washington Luis Avenue and slammed into a gas station and cargo building run by TAM airlines. The plane exploded on impact, burning to death its passengers and killing at least three people inside the building.

Special correspondent Bianca Lemos contributed to this report.

http://www.miamiherald.com/416/story/175130.html

By Todd Benson

SAO PAULO, July 19 (Reuters) - Debate over the cause of Brazil's worst air crash began to shift on Thursday from widespread claims of a faulty runway to potential pilot error or mechanical failures.

Since Tuesday's fiery accident at Sao Paulo's Congonhas airport that killed around 200 people, many officials and aviation experts have focused on the rain-soaked runway that the plane skidded off before slamming into a gas station and cargo terminal.

But a video of the botched landing of the Airbus A320 released by the national airport authority suggests other factors were also at play in Brazil's second major aviation disaster in less than a year.



The footage appears to show the TAM Linhas Aereas (TAMM4.SA: Quote, Profile , Research)(TAM.N: Quote, Profile , Research) plane accelerating instead of braking when it touched down on the short, slippery runway -- perhaps because the pilot was trying to lift off again.

"The government is clearly trying to convince public opinion that the runway at Congonhas was not at fault," said Elnio Borges, president of the Varig Pilots' Association. "They're going to do everything they can to blame the pilot."

Officials estimate up to 200 people were killed in the crash, including casualties on the ground and all 186 passengers and crew on board.

By Thursday afternoon, firefighters had pulled 181 charred bodies from the smoldering wreckage.

Four badly injured victims have died in hospital, bringing the official toll to 185. At the TAM cargo building hit by the plane, as many as five employees were still missing.

SAFETY CONCERNS

The crash highlighted long-standing safety concerns about Sao Paulo's aging domestic airport. Congonhas, which sits in the middle of South America's largest city, is known for its short and slick runways.

The TAM plane was trying to touch down on a surface that had been repaved in June after officials tried to ban large jets over fears they could skid off the short landing strip.



But the runway still had not been grooved to drain rainwater, prompting criticism that the airport was reopened prematurely because it is so important to Brazil's economy.

"The real question is why was Congonhas reopened in that state," said Paulo Sampaio, an aviation consultant at Multiplan Consultora in Rio de Janeiro. "It's a crime."

The airport resumed operations on Wednesday with an alternate runway. But federal prosecutors filed a petition to have it shut until both runways were determined to be in line with safety standards.

The video of the landing seems to cast doubt on whether the runway was at fault. It shows the plane speeding up after touching down very close to the designated limit for landings and suggests the pilot tried to take off again after realizing he could not brake in time. Continued...

"It's evident that something went wrong that didn't allow him to slow down in time," said Jose Carlos Pereira, president of the national airport authority.

"We have to clarify why the plane accelerated again," he added. "But only the black box can tell us that."

Firefighters have already recovered one of the plane's two cockpit recorders, which will be sent to the United States for analysis. French and U.S. safety investigators are helping Brazilian authorities probing the cause of the crash.

Air travel in Brazil has been chaotic since a Boeing 737 (BA.N: Quote, Profile , Research) clipped wings in mid-air with a private jet last September and crashed in the Amazon jungle, killing 154 people.


Air traffic controllers, fearing they were being made scapegoats for that accident, have staged periodic work slowdowns to protest against deficient radar and radio equipment.

Delays and cancellations have become routine, prompting frustrated passengers to occasionally storm onto airfields. (Additional reporting by Denise Luna and Claudia Pires)

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SAO PAULO, Brazil - One of the two thrust reversers on an airliner carrying 186 people that crashed in a fireball was turned off when the plane landed, the jet's owner said, as officials tried to determine why it raced down a runway instead of slowing down.



However, the airline insisted late Thursday that the thrust reverser, used by jets to slow down just after touching down, had been deactivated earlier in accordance with proper maintenance procedures.

Meanwhile, federal prosecutors asked a federal judge to "temporarily paralyze" Congonhas airport "” a move that could disrupt air travel in Latin America's largest nation. The judge could issue a decision as early as Monday on the airport's fate.

Responding to warnings that such a move could create havoc in travel and cause severe financial repercussions for airlines, prosecutor Marcio Schusterschitz said it was better "to choose life over money."

"We think this situation has reached its limit," Schusterschitz said in an interview with The Associated Press. "We are flying blind."

Brazil's Globo TV reported earlier Thursday that an unidentified problem in the Airbus-320's right thrust reverser emerged four days before the crash and was under investigation by authorities.

TAM, the airline, did not provide details about the problem but the company told Globo TV that Airbus maintenance rules approved by Brazilian aviation officials say the type of problem found must be inspected within 10 days and that the planes can fly in the interim.

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was expected to finally address Brazil's deadliest air tragedy in a televised speech to the nation Friday evening.

His government has come under fire for failing to deal with the nation's air travel safety problems. His only comment since the plane exploded Tuesday night was a brief statement of condolences issued hours later.

The opposition Social Democratic Party complained in a statement that Silva "hasn't appeared publicly to express his sorrow, or to give solidarity to the families of the victims and explain what measures are being taken" to prevent similar accidents.

The TAM Linhas Aereas SA jet had 186 people aboard and at least three people died on the ground after it slammed into a building owned by the airline, causing explosions and a fire that was still smoldering two days later.

By late Thursday, 188 bodies had been retrieved, but forensic examiners had identified only 25.

The crash came less than a year after 154 people were killed when a a Gol Airlines Boeing 737 collided with a small jet over the Amazon rainforest in September. That crash had been the country's deadliest.

Critics blamed Silva for failing to push forward a plan to solve problems ranging from an underfunded air traffic control system to deficient radars and investment in airport infrastructure.

Congressman Marco Maia of Silva's Workers Party said the nation's air travel crisis "surpassed its limit" with the crash. "The head of state has the responsibility to identify solutions to overcome this crisis," Maia said.

Meanwhile, authorities struggled to determine why the TAM jet raced down the runway after landing instead of slowing down just before it was blown apart in a series of explosions.

Security video released by the air force showed TAM Flight 3054 speeding down the tarmac more than four times as fast as other planes landing around the same time. That raised the possibility of pilot or mechanical error instead of a slick and short runway widely cited as a likely cause.

Brig. Jose Carlos Pereira, president of the national airport authority Infraero, said authorities must wait for an analysis of the black box to explain why the jet was going so fast.

"For some reason, the plane did not slow down," he said. "Something happened and the pilot, for some reason, accelerated the plane."

Aviation officials insist Congonhas' 6,362-foot runway is not too short for safe operations, but pilots have long complained about slippery conditions during rainy weather and say the length allows small margin for error.

On Thursday, another TAM plane had to pull out of a landing after coming in at an unsafe angle, circled around and landed safely on its second attempt "” a fairly routine event at Congonhas.

A day before the crash, two planes skidded off the runway. On March 22, a Boeing 737-400 overshot the runway in a heavy rain, stopping just short of a steep drop.

In February, a federal court briefly banned three types of large jets from using the airport, but was overruled on appeal. Airbus-320s were not covered under the court's ban.

The Congonhas airport recently resurfaced its runway to provide better braking in rainy conditions. But the new surface hadn't dried enough to cut deep grooves into the tarmac that allow water to run off the runway and provide increased grip. Airplanes continued to slide off the runway after the resurfacing was done and before Tuesday's crash.

___

Associated Press Writer Vivian Sequera in Brasilia contributed to this report.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070720/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/brazil_plane_crash

Brazil suffers new air safety problems By ALAN CLENDENNING, Associated Press Writer
8 minutes ago



SAO PAULO, Brazil - A radar failure over the Amazon forced Brazil to turn back or ground a string of international flights Saturday, deepening a national aviation crisis just hours after the president unveiled safety measures prompted by the country's deadliest air disaster.



Further shaking Brazilians' confidence, authorities said they had mistaken a piece of the fuselage from Tuesday's accident for the flight recorder and sent it to a laboratory for analysis.

The radar outage from 11:15 p.m. Friday to 2:30 a.m. Saturday, caused by an electrical problem, forced numerous planes heading to Brazil from the U.S. to return to their points of origin and make unscheduled landings at airports from Puerto Rico to Chile.

Eight of the 17 planes flying in the coverage area of the radar system were rerouted, and some airlines canceled flights bound for Brazil.

While the nation has had chronic problems with delays and cancellations on domestic flights over the past 10 months, the radar outage was the first time that international flights have been severely affected.

"This is total chaos here. I have never seen anything like it and it makes me feel very unsafe," said Eli Rocha, 52, of Oklahoma City, who was trying board a flight to Dallas on Saturday at Sao Paulo's international airport. The flight was crowded with weary Americans arriving on other delayed or diverted flights.

The confusion followed a nationally televised speech by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who tried to calm the nation Friday night by announcing new safety measures and saying authorities will build a new airport in Sao Paulo, where an Airbus A320 operated by TAM Airlines crashed, killing 191 people.

All 187 people aboard and at least four on the ground died when the jetliner raced down the runway, skipped over a crowded highway and exploded in a fireball that was still smoldering three days later. Many experts have said that the short, rain-slicked runway could have contributed to the disaster at the downtown Congonhas airport, Brazil's busiest.

Silva's speech Friday night was his first public pronouncement about the crash except for a brief statement.

"Our aviation system, in spite of the investments we have made in expansion and modernization of almost all Brazilian airports, is passing through difficulties," Silva said. "The security of our aviation system is compatible with all the international standards. We cannot lose sight of this."

Silva said aviation officials will limit the number of flights and restrict the weight of planes traveling into Congonhas airport and that the location of the new airport will be chosen within 90 days.

But Sao Paulo's Mayor Gilberto Kassab told reporters Saturday that building a new airport, which could take between five and 10 years, was not a priority for the city, which would instead seek to claim houses around Congonhas airport as eminent domain in order to lengthen runways.

Also Saturday, officials said they had mistakenly sent part of the plane's fuselage to the United States, thinking it was the flight recorder.

Gen. Jorge Kersul Filho, head of the air force's accident prevention division, told reporters in Sao Paulo that the real flight recorder had been located early Saturday in the wreckage and would be sent to Washington for analysis, a process expected to take several days.

The radar outage was caused when a short circuit cut off electricity during routine maintenance Friday night in the jungle city of Manaus, Brazil's Air Force said in a statement. Power was restored by 1:30 a.m. Saturday and the radar coverage was working again an hour later.

When the power went out, 17 flights were within the coverage area of the radar system in a large swath of the Amazon, the statement said. Nine planes continued to their destinations, and eight were rerouted. None of the jets were in any danger, the statement said.

The problem forced American Airlines to divert 13 Brazil-bound planes that had departed from New York, Miami and Dallas, said company spokeswoman Mary Frances Fagan.

Two American Airlines flights from Sao Paulo to Miami made unscheduled landings in the jungle city of Manaus, said Celso Gick, a spokesman for Brazilian airport authority Infraero. Brazilian media reported that another American Airlines flight landed in Santiago, Chile.

Steve Dolman of Houston was on an American flight from Miami to Sao Paulo when passengers were told about the radar failure over the Caribbean. The flight returned to Miami, where passengers sat on the plane for three hours before taking off again for Brazil.

Dolman, a frequent business traveler to Brazil, said all the recent problems should serve as a wake-up call. "You worry about it and just hope they take it seriously," he said.

Delta Airlines spokeswoman Thonnia Lee said six of its flights were also diverted "” three from the U.S. and three from Brazil. Flight 121 from New York was diverted to San Juan, Puerto Rico, before refueling and taking off again for Sao Paulo, arriving more than four hours late.

Jose dos Santos, a 43-year-old cafe owner, was aboard that flight when the crew announced Brazil was not letting airplanes enter its airspace because of the radar failure.

"I was saying, 'Oh my God, my life is over!' I was in a panic, all I could think about was the Gol jet that crashed in the Amazon last year," Santos said, referring to the September crash of a Gol Airlines Boeing 737 over the rainforest that killed all 154 people aboard.

Four United Airlines flights were also canceled as a result of the outage, spokeswoman Robin Urbanski said. In addition, Brazil's Globo TV reported on its Web site that Brazil-bound flights from Colombia, Panama and Venezuela were affected.

The September Gol crash in the Amazon was the country's worst air disaster until Tuesday's accident and it exposed widespread problems with the country's air traffic control system.

It also touched off months of work slowdowns by air traffic controllers protesting precarious working conditions. Congressional investigations turned up holes in the country's radar coverage; antiquated equipment and flight controllers with only rudimentary knowledge of English.

_____

Associated Press writers Michael Astor in Rio de Janeiro; Vivian Sequera in Brasilia, Anabelle Garay in Dallas, and John Pain in Miami contributed to this report.

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