After its worst air disaster, Brazil comes under fire

SAO PAULO (AFP) - Brazil came under fire over air safety Thursday, as TAM airlines said the jetliner in the country's worst air disaster that killed some 200 people had part of its braking equipment switched off.

"Air safety is currently compromised and is a danger to the traveling public," the Montreal-based International Federation of Air Traffic Controllers' Associations (IFATCA) said in a blunt statement.

Relatives of the dead, legal groups and government officials called for the temporary closure of Sao Paulo's Congonhas airport, which is notorious for a comparatively short runway that pilots say becomes slick when wet.

On Tuesday, a Tam Airlines plane careened off the runway upon landing at the airport in heavy rain, then shot across a crowded avenue and slammed into a warehouse before bursting into flames.

Television footage of the crash showed the aircraft landing at high speed and traveling down the runway in only three seconds, as compared with 11 seconds for other planes.

The plane then disappeared from view, and seconds later, a giant ball of flame filled the sky.

All 186 passengers and crew aboard the Airbus 320 were killed, along with a number of people on the ground.

TAM airlines said Wednesday the airplane's right reverser, a motorized device to help slow it down on landing, was "deactivated" at the time of the accident "in conditions stipulated by the maintenance manuals of the manufacturer Airbus and approved by the National Civil Aviation Agency."

However, TAM's press office told AFP that a fault in a reverser "does not jeopardize landings" and that no maintenance problem or mechanical problem had been detected the day before the accident.

TAM's assurances followed a television report that said a problem with the reverser was detected on July 13 and that according to Airbus guidelines the plane should have been checked within 10 days of the discovery.

By Thursday afternoon, rescuers had retrieved 188 bodies and believed about 20 were still buried in the charred wreckage from the accident.

"Now we need heavy machinery to remove the wreckage and reach the other victims," said fire Captain Nilton Miranda.

Brazil's airway infrastructure had already come under scrutiny after the September crash of a Gol airliner with 154 people on board in the Amazon jungle. The plane had been clipped by a smaller jet.

"In both cases numerous warning signs, multiple risks and safety relevant reports were ignored," the IFATCA said.

Tuesday's crash was also the latest in a series of incidents in which planes skidded off the tarmac at Congonhas airport, including one the day before the disaster.

And on Thursday, a TAM Airlines Fokker 100 had to abort a landing at the last minute, for unclear reasons, airport administrators said.
"Warnings on the conditions at the airport in Congonhas have repeatedly been ignored by the authorities," IFATCA said.

The main runway had been resurfaced last month, but more work was scheduled for September to build grooves to improve water drainage.

The government's public affairs ministry called for the airport to halt operations pending the outcome of a probe of its safety conditions and an investigation of the crash itself.

Infraero, which manages Brazil's airport, said shutting it down would be overly "fundamentalist."

"What would we do with the 20 million passengers?" asked Infraero President Jose Carlos Pereira.

Located just a few kilometers (miles) from Sao Paulo's city center, Congonhas is Latin America's busiest airport, with an average of 630 daily landings and take-offs. It is mainly used for flights from other parts of Brazil and South America.

The probe of the crash should take about 10 months, according to investigators, who hope they will be able to retrieve recorded data from one of the black boxes found at the site of the crash.