Update: 11-00 am IST, July 18, 2007

Brazil: 176 Passengers, and Crew Feared Dead Plane Crash  

Inputs courtesy: BBC / Pics AP and AFP
 
The plane skidded across a main road before hitting a fuel depot. Scores of people are feared dead after a passenger plane carrying 176 people crashed at Congonhas airport in Sao Paulo, Brazil, starting a major fire.

The state governor said the chances of finding survivors were "practically nil", while a fire official said more may have been killed on the ground.

The TAM airlines Airbus A320 is thought to have slid off the end of the runway as it landed in very wet conditions.

Concerns had been raised about the safety of the runway during heavy rain.

There had been persistent, heavy rain in the two hours preceding the accident.

On Monday afternoon, a smaller plane skidded off the runway onto the nearby grass in similar conditions.

Major fire

TAM Express flight 3054 was carrying 170 passengers and six crew when it attempted to land at Congonhas airport in the heart of Sao Paulo.

The plane was travelling to the city from Porto Alegre in the south of the country.

All of a sudden I heard a loud explosion, and the ground beneath my feet shook

After touching down on the airport's main runway at 1850 (2150 GMT), the passenger jet skidded before sliding across a busy road in a residential area.

It then struck a depot used by TAM for storing cargo and some fuel.

Brazilian television showed pictures of a major fire at the scene and the emergency services arriving in large numbers to deal with the aftermath of the accident.

An eyewitness, TAM employee Elias Rodrigues Jesus, said the plane had exploded after slamming into the depot.

"All of a sudden I heard a loud explosion, and the ground beneath my feet shook," he told the Associated Press.

"I looked up and I saw a huge ball of fire, and then I smelled the stench of kerosene and sulphur."

A doctor at Sao Paulo's mortuary said 30 badly charred bodies had been brought in.

Sao Paulo state Governor Jose Serra said: "I was told that the temperature inside the plane was 1,000 degrees [1,830 Fahrenheit], so the chances of there being any survivors are practically nil."

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva declared three days of national morning for the victims of the crash.

Safety concerns

The BBC's Gary Duffy in Sao Paolo says the weather has been bad for much of the day and there has been concern for some time about safety at Congonhas during heavy rain.

In February, a judge briefly banned flights in and out of the airport, which is the busiest in Brazil.

Pilots had complained that water was pooling on the surface of the landing strip, making braking difficult and occasionally causing planes to skid out of control.

Remedial work, including laying a new surface, has been carried out in recent months.

However, a much smaller plane skidded off the runway before stopping on grass in similar weather conditions on Monday. No-one was injured in the incident.

Air safety in Brazil has been a major issue since a crash last year when a passenger plane collided with an executive jet over the Amazon, our correspondent says.

Some 154 people died in that incident, which was, at the time, the worst air crash in the country's history.

Brazil Plane Crash: Up to 200 Feared Dead

Reuters

Sao Paulo, Jul 18: A Brazilian airliner crashed and burst into flames at Brazil's busiest airport, and as many as 200 people were feared dead in the country's second major air disaster in less than a year.

Rescue crews said none of the 176 people on board the Airbus A320 were likely to have survived, according to Sao Paulo state Gov Jose Serra. Brazilian news agency Folha quoted the leader of a rescue crew as saying there could be 200 people dead, including casualties on the ground.

The plane, flying from Porto Alegre in southern Brazil, lost control on landing in Sao Paulo's Congonhas airport yesterday.

It skidded off the rain-soaked runway and flew over a bustling avenue just below, slamming into a gas station and cargo terminal where people were working.

''The plane came spinning and passed over our heads at the level of the street lights. We could hear the engine noise getting louder and the plane growing in front of us. When it hit the ground it exploded sending pieces all around,'' said Luis Santos, who was in his car at the station at the time.

Dozens of ambulances raced to the crash site and television images showed the plane's tail sticking out from the cargo terminal in flames as firefighters tried to put out the blaze, which spread to a neighboring building.

Government officials said the body of one man was removed from the site. Globo News TV said two other bodies had also been recovered. Two local hospitals said they were treating at least seven people for injuries.

The plane, operated by Brazil's No 1 airline TAM Linhas Aereas, was carrying 170 passengers and six crew. At least one of the passengers was a prominent congressman, an aide told Reuters.

In September, 154 people were killed when a Brazilian Boeing 737 collided with a small executive jet and crashed in the Amazon jungle in what was the worst air accident in the country's history.

Congonhas airport, located in the heart of South America's largest city, has had runway problems for years and recently repaved one of its landing strips.

Earlier this year, officials tried to ban wide-bodied jets from the airport because of fears they could skid off its short landing strips.

Air travel in Brazil has repeatedly been disrupted since the September crash unveiled a series of problems, including insufficient infrastructure and overburdened, underpaid staff.

Last month, two passenger planes clipped wings while taxiing at Congonhas, increasing concerns about safety.