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Plane crash kills nearly 200
18/07/2007 07:27 - (SA)
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| Rescue workers search the site where a TAM airlines commercial jet crashed after skidding off a runway in Sao Paulo, killing up to 200 people. (Evelson de Freitas, Agencia Estado, AP) |
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Sao Paulo - A passenger jet crashed and burst into flames after landing in driving rain at Brazil's busiest airport, likely killing all 176 people on board in what would be the nation's deadliest air disaster, the state's governor said.
An official said at least another 15 people died on the ground after the Airbus-32 skidded across a busy avenue during Tuesday's evening rush hour and crashed into a petrol station and a building owned by the airline. The plane erupted in flames.
While the death toll officially stood at 40, it was expected to rise sharply as rescue workers, forensic experts and doctors scoured the wreckage in South America's largest city. The flight was arriving at Sao Paulo from Porto Alegre in Brazil's extreme south.
1 000°C inside plane
"I was told that the temperature inside the plane was 1 000°C, so the chances of there being any survivors are practically nil," Sao Paulo state Governor Jose Serra told reporters.
Authorities announced early on Wednesday that they had recovered 25 charred bodies from what was left of the plane and that 15 people who were on the ground either died at the scene or in hospitals.
Ten more people on ground were injured and hospitalised, according to a Sao Paulo state public safety media official who would not allow his name to be used because of department policy.
The runway at Congonhas airport has been repeatedly criticised for being too short, and two planes slipped off it in rainy weather just a day earlier, though no one was injured in either incident.
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva declared three days of national morning for the victims of the crash. Presidential spokesperson Marcelo Baumbach said late on Tuesday that no death toll or cause would be immediately released because it was premature to do so.
It was Brazil's second major air disaster in less than a year. In September, a Gol Aerolinhas Inteligentes SA Boeing 737 and an executive jet collided over the Amazon rain forest. All 154 people on the passenger jet died. The executive jet landed safely. It had been Brazil's deadliest air disaster to date.
'Huge ball of fire'
Describing Tuesday's crash, Tam worker Elias Rodrigues Jesus told The Associated Press he was walking near the site when he saw the jet explode in between a petrol station and a Tam building.
"All of a sudden I heard a loud explosion, and the ground beneath my feet shook," Jesus said. "I looked up and I saw a huge ball of fire, and then I smelled the stench of kerosene and sulphur."
Flames were still shooting at least two storeys high around the three-storey building four hours after the crash and dozens of ambulances were at the site.
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