|
NTERNATIONAL: Plane disaster fireball
(Daily Post (Liverpool) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) RESCUE crews yesterday pulled dozens of bodies from a plane that crashed and burst into flames at a Sao Paulo airport, as the number of people feared deadrose toaround 200 in what would be Brazil's worst air disaster.
The TAM airlines Airbus-320 was en route to Brazil's busiest airport from Porto Alegre when it skidded on the rain-slicked runway, crossed a busy road and slammed into a fuel station and TAM building.
Officials said the chance of finding survivors was near zero.
A Sao Paulo public safety official said 15 bodies had been recovered from the ground.
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 their worst air disaster.
Emergency workers had recovered 56 bodies from wreckage of the TAM airliner by early yesterday as well as the TAM airlines Airbus-320's "black box" flight data recorder, according to sources.
Presidential spokesman Marcelo Baumbach said no cause would be immediately released because it was premature to do so.
The runway at Sao Paulo's Congon has airport has been repeatedly criticised for its short length, and two planes slipped off it in rainy weather yesterday, though no one was injured in either incident. The airport is ringed by heavily populated neighbourhoods.
The TAM flight was landing on Congonhas' 6,362ft Runway 35, which was recently resurfaced, but not grooved, which would provide better breaking in rainy conditions. There were plans to regroove the surface by the end of July.
Because of its short length, Congonhas is known among pilots as the "aircraft carrier". They are instructed to touch down in the first 1,000ft of runway, or do a go-around if they overshoot the immediate landing zone.
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 planemaker said.
More than 3,000 planes from the A320 family have been produced and delivered over the years, Airbus said. All airbus wings are made in North Wales at Broughton.
Eyewitness Elias Rodrigues Jesus, aTAMworker, said hewas walking near the site when he sawthe jet explode in between a fuel station and a TAM building.
"All of a sudden I heard a loud explosion, and the ground beneathmy feet shook," he said. "I looked up and I saw a huge ball of fire, and then I smelled the stench of kerosene and sulphur."
Sao Paulo state governor Jose Serra said the hopes of finding any survivors in the plane "are practically nil," since the temperature inside the plane reached 1,000C (1,830F).
Congressman Julio Redecker was among those on the flight, but an aide did not know whether he was dead or injured.
The accident happened during heavy rain.
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.
welshnews@dailypost.co.uk
Copyright 2007 MGN Ltd, Source: The Financial Times Limited
[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
|
INDUSTRIES
Activate Email 
Find Solutions for Enterprises, SMBs & Service Providers at the INTERNET TELEPHONY Conference and EXPO East, January 20-22, 2010. Miami, FL.
