189 killed in Brazilian air crash; plane crashes into gas station

NFS4

No Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
72,636
46
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damn :Q
SAO PAULO, Brazil - The pilot of an airliner that burst into flames after trying to land on a short, rain-slicked runway apparently tried to take off again, barely clearing rush-hour traffic on a major highway. The death toll rose Wednesday to 189 and could climb higher.

The TAM airlines Airbus-320 was en route to Sao Paulo from Porto Alegre in southern Brazil on Tuesday when it skidded on the rain-slicked runway in Sao Paulo, barreled across a busy road and slammed into a gas station and TAM building.

The airline put the number of people aboard the plane at 186, and officials said three bodies of people killed on the ground had been recovered. There were fears of more dead on the ground, with 14 others taken to hospitals, where their conditions were not known.

"What appears to have happened is that he (the pilot) didn't manage to land and he tried to take off again," said Capt. Marcos, a fire department spokesman who would only identify himself by rank and first name in accordance with department guidelines.

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva declared three days of national mourning following Brazil's second major air disaster in less than a year. In September, a Gol Aerolinhas Inteligentes SA Boeing 737 and an executive jet collided over the Amazon rain forest, killing 154 people in what had been the deadliest air disaster to date.

Emergency workers had recovered that 56 bodies from wreckage of the TAM airliner by early Wednesday as well as the TAM airlines Airbus-320's "black box" flight data recorder, according to the Web site of O Estado de Sao Paulo newspaper.

Sao Paulo state Gov. Jose Serra said the hopes of finding any of the 176 people aboard alive "are practically nil," since the temperature inside the plane reached 1,830 degrees Fahrenheit.

Witness Elias Rodrigues Jesus, a TAM worker, told The Associated Press he was walking near the site when he saw the jet explode in between a gas station and a Tam building.

"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."

The runway at Sao Paulo's Congonhas airport has been repeatedly criticized for being too short, and two planes slipped off it in rainy weather just a day earlier, though no one was injured in either incident.

Pilots sometimes refer to Congonhas as the "aircraft carrier." They say they are instructed to touch down in the first 1,000 feet of runway, or do a go-around if they overshoot the immediate landing zone.

The Congonhas runway is 6,365 feet, compared with a 7,003-foot runway at New York's LaGuardia Airport, which accommodates similar planes, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

The airline released a list of most of the people on the flight. "Tam expresses its most profound condolences to the relatives and friends of the passengers who were on Flight 3054," the company said.

Before the list was released, Lamir Buzzanelli said his 41-year-old son, Claudemir, an engineer, had called him from Porto Alegre to say he was in the plane and about to return from a business trip.

"My hopes are not too high because I've been calling him on his cell phone, and all I get is his voice mail," Buzzanelli said, his eyes tearing up.

The crash highlights the country's increasing aviation woes. In September, a Gol Airlines Boeing 737 collided with an executive jet over the Amazon rainforest, causing the passenger jet to crash, killing 154 people.

Since then, there have been questions about the country's underfunded air traffic control systems, deficient radar system and the airlines' ability to cope with a surge in travelers. Controllers ? concerned about being made scapegoats ? have engaged in strikes and work slowdowns to raise safety concerns, causing lengthy delays and cancelations.

Presidential spokesman Marcelo Baumbach said no cause would be immediately released because it was premature to do so.

"His worries now are with the victims and the relatives of the victims. That is main concern," the spokesman said of Silva.

The accident happened during heavy rain, and critics have said for years that such an accident was possible at the airport because its runway is too short for large planes landing in rainy weather.

In 1996, a TAM airlines Fokker-100 skidded off the runway at Congonhas airport and down a street before erupting in a fireball. The crash killed all 96 people on board and three on the ground.

A federal court in February of this year briefly banned takeoffs and landings of three types of large jets at the airport because of safety concerns at Congonhas airport, which handles huge volumes of flights for the massive domestic Brazilian air travel market.

But an appeals court overruled the ban, 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.

On Monday, two smaller planes slipped off the airport's runway in rainy weather, but no one was injured.

In France, Airbus said it was sending five specialists to Brazil to help investigate the crash. The company will provide "full technical assistance" to France's bureau for accident investigations and to Brazilian authorities.

The single-aisle, twin-engine plane, delivered in 1998, had logged about 20,000 flight hours in some 9,300 flights, the European plane maker said.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/200...wLGMopJBq2JF0n3vBvaA8F
 

sniperruff

Lifer
Apr 17, 2002
11,644
2
0
anyone have that link where they show pictures of some chinese airplane with totally warped rotors i the turbine?
 

maddogchen

Diamond Member
Feb 17, 2004
8,903
2
76
so wait...it landed, couldn't stop, ran out of runway, went through the dirt mounds that are there to stop the plane, went through the fence, across the highway full of cars, and into a gas station?
 

bsobel

Moderator Emeritus<br>Elite Member
Dec 9, 2001
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Originally posted by: maddogchen
so wait...it landed, couldn't stop, ran out of runway, went through the dirt mounds that are there to stop the plane, went through the fence, across the highway full of cars, and into a gas station?

Must have been a Southwest flight (a southwest flight did just that at Burbank airport a few years back)
 

iamwiz82

Lifer
Jan 10, 2001
30,772
13
81
Originally posted by: bsobel
Originally posted by: maddogchen
so wait...it landed, couldn't stop, ran out of runway, went through the dirt mounds that are there to stop the plane, went through the fence, across the highway full of cars, and into a gas station?

Must have been a Southwest flight (a southwest flight did just that at Burbank airport a few years back)

A SWA flight skidded off the runway in Chicago and killed a child last year.
 

K1052

Elite Member
Aug 21, 2003
50,036
40,958
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Originally posted by: iamwiz82
Originally posted by: bsobel
Originally posted by: maddogchen
so wait...it landed, couldn't stop, ran out of runway, went through the dirt mounds that are there to stop the plane, went through the fence, across the highway full of cars, and into a gas station?

Must have been a Southwest flight (a southwest flight did just that at Burbank airport a few years back)

A SWA flight skidded off the runway in Chicago and killed a child last year.

Unfortunately Midway is the size of a postage stamp.
 

kuk

Platinum Member
Jul 20, 2000
2,925
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Posting here some news, nothing that has been 100% verified, but at least not lost in translation as it often happens with this type of coverage. All of this happened a couple of miles from home.

The TAM Airlines Airbus 320 crashed around 18h45, local time and during rush hour. After trying to land it flew over Washington Luiz Av. and hit a 4-story building. The Congonhas airport is Brazil's busiest airport, serving São Paulo's Metropolitan Area which is home to 20 million people. Congonhas is completely surrounded by busy avenues (the Washington Luiz Av. is one of the city's busiest, and often congested) and residential areas with high rise apartments. It's an 1919 airport, and the city grew around and swallowed it.

The crash site is a courier service (i.e. Fedex, UPS) building operated by TAM Express, a dozen meters across the end of the runway. Neighboring it is a gas station and a commercial office building. The building cought fire, which then spread to the surroundings.

There has been 12 peoples confirmed dead which were on ground. Some of them worked at the TAM Express building, one of which was killed after jumping from the window. There are reports that other deaths were from people refueling at the gas station, and possibly motorists on traffic. There were 176 on-board, and it's almost certain that all are dead after successive explosions and blazing fire.

Brazilian Airforce is working on two hypothesis. The first is that the pilot, while trying to land, surpassed the landing target, tried to climb and stalled over the avenue and hit the building. The second is that the plane touched down and with no runway left, tried to climb back up. The media and popular opinion has said that due to the rainy weather, the plane skidded on the runway. Congonhas had redone all paving last month, but some analysts have said that work was not finished, especially the creases in the pavement for water drainage and adherence. We are skeptical, as it has been a rollercoaster ride in aviation in Brazil since last october's Gol flight mid-air crash with a jet on-route to the US, which killed more than 150 people and was credited to human mistake on the jet and with air control. This spawned periodic strikes with air controllers, said to be over tasked and working with obsolete equipment, leading to systematic delays. Today's accident just reaffirms all the structural problems with this country's air traffic.


Sad day.

Pedro
 

GagHalfrunt

Lifer
Apr 19, 2001
25,284
1,997
126
Originally posted by: NFS4
~170 onboard. At least 6 survivors

Most of the news agencies are reporting over 200 dead. Must have been heavy casualties among bystanders.
 

KarmaPolice

Diamond Member
Jun 24, 2004
3,066
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I am going to brazil in august....


last time my mom went a door fell of during flight.


Maybe I won't fly from San Paulo to Rio and just stick to the United
 

RKS

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 1999
6,824
3
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I believe this airport was already a concern since the runways were considered too short and dangerous to try to land in rainy conditions. A Brazilian court had overuled a lower court and had allowed the airport to continue using the runway.
 

kuk

Platinum Member
Jul 20, 2000
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Originally posted by: GagHalfrunt
I Google Earth-ed the airport in case anyone wants to see the area:

Linky

That's Guarulhos International. Congonhas is 29km (18 mi) south-southwest of it.


Pedro
 

imported_Imp

Diamond Member
Dec 20, 2005
9,148
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Originally posted by: RKS
I believe this airport was already a concern since the runways were considered too short and dangerous to try to land in rainy conditions. A Brazilian court had overuled a lower court and had allowed the airport to continue using the runway.

Just read about this (heard about it last night, didn't care then) now. Sucks for the people in the plane, but the '3 days of mourning' is a crock os sh!t. So the airport is a deathtrap, long history of planes running off the runway, crashing, is shut down to commercial/heavy planes by courts and is then overturned. Nice move. I sure hope the "courts" of the country enjoy the lawsuits and economic impacts, dumb effing idiots.
 

tealk

Diamond Member
May 27, 2005
4,104
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May God bless the families that have lost a loved one. Keep them in your prayers.
Amen
 

Safeway

Lifer
Jun 22, 2004
12,074
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Looks like no one is alive unless they were injured bystanders. The temperature in the cabin reached 1,800F.
 

Fritzo

Lifer
Jan 3, 2001
41,917
2,157
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Who the hell puts a gas station at the end of a short runway??? Good thing the gas tanks protected the razor blade factory and the fireworks warehouse that were right behind it. I'm suprised the plane was able to jump over the moat of acid! :confused:

Seriously-- what were they thinking???