Plane crash in Brazil - 185 Deaths Confirmed, 13 Officially Identified, 200 Feared Dead

Filed in archive Latin News on July 19, 2007

Rescue teams were still working yesterday (Wednesday, July 18) in the area of the airport of Congonhas, in São Paulo, where an airplane from TAM Airlines crashed against a building, after trying to land with 186 people on board. The plane crash caused a fire, in the most serious air accident of the Brazilian history.

The pace of the rescuing diminished today, due to the difficulties faced by the teams as there were risks of building collapse, and the frequent burst of new fires. Since the beginning of this morning, only one body was removed from the wreckage.

The State Security Office (Secretaria de Segurança do Estado) informed this morning, that besides the 181 bodies already removed from the place, four victims who had been taken to the hospitals died, totalizing 185 casualties. On Tuesday, TAM said that the Airbus 320 carried 176 passengers, but the number was rectified later - 186 passengers were on board. Only 13 victims have been officially identified.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva ordered to the Secretary of Justice, Tarso Genro, the opening of an investigation to determinate the responsibility of some public agency regarding the airport runaway, which went recently through renovations, and was reopened on June 30. After being informed of the accident on Tuesday, Lula decreed three days of official mourning in the country.

"This (the investigation) doesn't suggest suspects about nobody nor any affirmation regarding the origin of the accident", said Genro in interview in Brasilia. "It is only a precaution that the president takes to cover all the possibilities of investigation."

The investigations will be conducted by the Federal Police.

The commander of the Aeronautics, Brigadier General Juniti Saito, said to the president that an investigation center of the agency recommends, as a precaution, that when it's raining and the runways are wet, Congonhas' main runway shouldn't be used. EVERYBODY knew that, but they waited for a tragic accident to officially recommend it. How nice.

And today, the Infraero authorities are saying that "the adherence levels of the runway were above international standards", when the accident happened. Brazilian prosecutors want airport shut down in wake of crash, but I don't think the authorities will close Congonhas. At the very moment you're reading this, there are people at the airport trying to aboard.

This WAS a tragedy foretold, but nobody cared before. Now, the Brazilian government is worried about how the tragedy will affect it's image! Another plane had trouble landing at Congonhas today; a Fokker-100, also from TAM. The plane landed at the second attempt, and nobody was hurt. You can say they got lucky.

There's a video of the 3054 Flight tragic landing. The images, disclosed by Infraero, show that the airplane took three seconds to run over the runway. In normal conditions, the run would have taken 11 seconds. Click here to watch the video.