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176 feared dead in Brazil crash

The plane skids off a runway criticized as being too short.

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published July 18, 2007

SAO PAULO, Brazil - A passenger jet crashed and burst into flames after skidding off a runway Tuesday and barreling across a busy highway, officials said. All 176 people on board were feared killed in what would be Brazil's deadliest air disaster.

The crash happened in a driving rain on a runway at Congonhas airport that had been criticized in the past for being too short. The TAM Airlines jet slammed into a gas station and a building owned by the airline, said Jose Leonardi Mota, a spokesman with airport authority Infraero.

TV footage showed flames and clouds of black smoke billowing into the air after the crash.

"I was told that the temperature inside the plane was 1,000 degrees (Celsius), so the chances of there being any survivors are practically nil," Sao Paulo State Gov. Jose Serra said at the airport. That temperature in Celsius is equivalent to about 1,830 degrees Fahrenheit.

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva declared three days of national morning for the victims, and presidential spokesman Marcelo Baumbach told reporters late Tuesday that no death toll or cause would be immediately released because it was premature to do so.

The crash - Brazil's second major disaster in less than a year - highlights the country's 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.

TAM Airlines said there were 176 people on board the Airbus 320 that crashed - 170 passengers and six crew members.

As many as 12 people on the ground were injured and taken to hospitals, Serra said.

TAM Flight 3054 was en route to Sao Paulo from the southern Brazilian city of Porto Alegre when the crash occurred upon landing, TAM said in a statement.

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. A federal court in February briefly banned takeoffs and landings of large jets because of safety concerns at the airport. But an appeals court overruled the ban, saying it was too harsh.

[Last modified July 18, 2007, 01:53:24]