Brazil - Airplane crashes on landing at Sao Paulo

Reuters (excerpt) ^

[HAL9000]

SAO PAULO, July 17 (Reuters) - A passenger plane carrying 170 people crashed into a filling station at Sao Paulo's Congonhas airport on Tuesday after failing to brake in time upon landing, Globo News television said.

Air Force Command confirmed the fire but could not say how many people were on board, if any, at the time of the accident, and whether there were any victims.

[Mr. Silverback]

Me too. from the state of the crash site, it looks like they had time to be scared, but few, if any, suffered.

[grjr21]

“Tem 200 mortos aí”, diz coronel dos bombeiros sobre acidente da TAM

Roughly translated Fire chief says “WE have 200 dead here”

From Folia Online

http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/folha/cotidiano/ult95u312806.shtml

[RDTF]

Official: Chances of Finding Brazil Plane Crash Survivors ‘Practically Nil’

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,289696,00.html

[ctgPi]

Congonhas's runway has caused quite a few planes to slip the last few months, mainly during rainy days. They replaced the asphalt on the runway, but didn't add grooving to the runway -- they were supposed to do so during the month. Just yesterday, a plane slipped from the runway during landing.

Just 15 minutes ago, an explosion was heard — perhaps some fuel tank was hit by the flames? (breaking: a death was just confirmed by GloboNews)

[ctgPi]

As I posted before, slippage had already happened a few times before; this was just the first fatal occurrence. This is just an accident. Veja has a Google Earth map showing the runway and the crash site: link

[ctgPi]

The local energy company has cut power supply to the area of the accident, to avoid additional fires.

According to GloboNews, all victims taken to a hospital (at least the ones identified) were TAM employees, working on the building where the plane crashed.

Veja (through Reinaldo Azevedo) says that the minority House leader, Júlio Redecker (PSDB) is in the plane.

[ctgPi]

TAM just reported that 175 people were aboard the flight (155 passengers). They will not release the manifest until they contact the families of all passengers.

[dragnet2]

Hearing all are dead.

[ConservativeStatement]

Ah, sorry for the confusion. I meant it was on MSNBC at the time I posted the comment. Anyway, here it is a few hours later:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19815779/

[zipper]

Resurfaced but not grooved? Really? Can you cite a source?

No wonder they ran off the runway — reports said the runway was wet, too —

Congonhas, Brazil Runway Length : 6362 ft.

http://www.world-airport-codes.com/Brazil/congonhas-6690.html

“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.”

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8QELO180&show_article=1

[zipper]

Found it, reference MassRepublicanFlyersFan’s link from post #49.

Now I’m wondering if there was a crosswind or tailwind, and if so, how much?

---

Runway lacks grooving
The accident happened during heavy rains, 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.

MSNBC.com has learned the airport’s main runway was under construction recently. Flights were approved for takeoffs and landings last month even though runways lacked standard grooving to provide traction for airplane tires and to facilitate draining of rainwater.

Congonhas logged cases of airplanes’ sliding at the end of last year because of the condition of its runways. Repairs began at the end of February, and the runway was closed during heavy rain.

The main work was completed and the runway was reopened June 30. However, Edgard Brandão Júnior, the regional superintendent of Infraero, said grooving could not be completed in time because the process requires 60 days to “cure.” The work was still under way and was being done at nighttime so as not to interfere with takeoffs and landings.

[SuziQ]

It’s amazing how many folks, even those who witnessed it, were convinced later that something else happened entirely. I saw the witnesses being interviewed within 30 minutes of the explosion. They were out on the beach, or at their beach homes and they saw the flash up in the air, then heard the explosion, then saw burning bits coming down from the plane before the entire thing fell. NOT ONE PERSON mentioned anything about seeing anything go UP before the plane exploded. Yet, with all the chatter about it, a lot of those people were later convinced that they couldn’t trust their lying eyes, and they MUST be wrong because the conspiracists wanted it to be that way.

[agent_delta]

Santa Ana (KSNA) accomodates Boeing 757s, etc.

Their runway is 5701 x 150 ft.

[Mr. Silverback]

One thing that strikes me is that I'm not aware of a single witness who claimed to have seen anything resemabling a missile launch. If you've ever seen an anti-aircraft missile launched at night, you know there's no way it would have been missed. No launch means the streaks were not missiles, and you are absolutely correct about witness unreliability in this and other cases.

[Publius6961]

BUMP!

[raygun]

PLANE SKIDS OFF COLOMBIA RUNWAY; 7 Hurt jul 18 11:23 AM (US EST)

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) - A plane carrying 59 people skidded off a wet runway and into the Caribbean Sea in Colombia, causing minor injuries to seven, aviation officials said.

The Brazilian-made Embraer 190 plane operated by operated by Aero Republica was carrying 54 passengers and five crew members from Cali to Santa Marta, a tourist destination on Colombia's north coast.

After landing Tuesday at Simon Bolivar Airport, it skidded along the wet tarmac and slid halfway into the water, civil air authority spokesman Martin Gonzalez told The Associated Press. The plane was evacuated.

Aero Republica is a subsidiary of Copa, Panama's national airline.