WORLD / America
Brazilian plane with 170 aboard crashes
(AP)
Updated: 2007-07-18 08:02
A rescuer is seen next to flames at the site where a TAM airlines
commercial jet crashed in Sao Paulo, Tuesday, July 17, 2007. [AP]
SAO PAULO, Brazil - A plane with as many as 170 people aboard crashed and
burst into flames in Sao Paulo on Tuesday after skidding off a runway
that has been criticized as being too short in a driving rain, the
nation's airport authority said.
There were no immediate reports of deaths by authorities, but a witness
said he saw one charred body as flames shot into the sky and clouds of
black smoke billowed into the air after the crash.
The Tam airline's Airbus-320 skidded off the runway at Congonhas airport,
then crossed a busy road at the height of rush hour in South America's
largest city before slamming into a gas station, said Jose Leonardi Mota,
a spokesman with airport authority Infraero.
Tam worker Elias Rodrigues Jesus, walking near the site just as the crash
happened, told The Associated Press that the jet exploded in between the
gas station and a warehouse owned by Tam.
"All of a sudden I heard a loud explosion, and the ground beneath my feet
shook," Jesus said. "I looked up and I saw a huge ball of fire, and then
I smelled the stench of kerosene and sulfur."
Jesus said he saw one charred body, and Globo TV reported that at least
eight people were being treated for injuries. It was not clear whether
they were passengers or had been in the building.
Tam Linhas Aereas flight 3054 was en route to Sao Paulo from the southern
Brazilian city of Porto Alegre with between 150 and 170 people on board,
Mota said. The government-run Agencia Brasil news agency said there were
170 passengers and eight crew members on the jet.
"At this moment, we cannot determine the extent of possible injuries
suffered by the airplanes occupants and crew members," the airline said
in a statement.
The accident happened during heavy rains, and critics have warned for
years that such an accident was possible at the airport because its
runway is too short for large planes landing when the runway is wet.
A federal court in February briefly banned takeoffs and landings of large
jets at the airport because of safety concerns at the airport, which
handles huge volumes of flights for the massive domestic Brazilian air
travel market.
But an appeals court overruled the ban on three types of planes, saying
it was too harsh because it would have severe economic ramifications and
that there were not enough safety concerns to prevent the planes from
landing and taking off the airport.
Tuesday's crash came 10 months after Brazil's deadliest crash, a
September collision between a Gol Aerolinhas Inteligentes SA Boeing 737
and an executive jet over the Amazon rainforest.
All 154 people on the Gol jet died. The executive jet landed safely.
The crash highlighted Brazil's increasing aviation woes, as a surge in
travelers overwhelms underfunded air traffic control systems. A Brazilian
judge indicted four flight controllers and the smaller jet's two U.S.
pilots on the equivalent of manslaughter charges, but the defendants
point to other problems �� from holes in radar coverage to the inability
of some Brazilian controllers to clearly speak English, the language of
international aviation.
Controllers -- concerned about being made scapegoats -- have engaged in
strikes and work slowdowns to raise safety concerns, causing or
exacerbating lengthy delays and cancelations.
Angry travelers have stormed airline check-in counters and runways in
Brazil, and fistfights have broken out in waiting areas.
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