Brazil's Worst Ever Air Disaster

  • Brazil jet thrust reverser 'off'


  • Pilot in Brazilian crash tried to abort landing, official says
  • An initial probe of a Brazilian plane crash that killed nearly 200 people suggests the airliner's pilot tried to abort a landing...

  • Pilots' group urges Brazil to drop criminal investigation into fatal air crash
  • Brazilian authorities should drop their criminal investigation into a deadly mid-air collision last year involving two U.S. pilots and allow technical experts to complete their probe into the disaster, an international pilots' association said

  • Throttle Error Likely Key In Brazilian Crash
  • An engine throttle in the wrong position was probably a major cause of Brazil's worst air accident last month, a congressional committee reported on Wednesday, citing flight recorder data. Marco Maia, a senior member of the panel investigating the July 17 crash that killed 199 people as well as Brazil's long-running air traffic crisis said the throttle "was not in the correct position." But he added this did not necessarily mean human error, as some local media have suggested. "It is irresponsible to say it was pilot error... All the standard landing procedures were carried out. It is premature to say the pilots were responsible," Maia was quoted as saying on the congressional web site.

  • Cockpit Recorder Reveals Pilots' Terror in Brazil Air Crash
  • Brazilian lawmakers investigating last month's deadly plane crash in Sao Paulo have reviewed flight recorder data indicating that the pilots were not able to slow down the aircraft before it crashed.The congressional commission in Brasilia Wednesday read the transcripts of the pilots' final conversations just before the plane crashed on July 17 at the Congonhas airport. Flight data cited by the Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper indicated a lever to control speed was in the wrong position as the plane touched down, causing the aircraft to speed up instead of slow down...

  • First suit filed
  • The first of the lawsuits relating to the Brazilian airline TAM's air crash in Sao Paulo has been filed in the Southern District of Florida in relation to the family of a Miami resident killed in the disaster. Reuters report that the complaint also names European jet manufacturer Airbus, the Goodrich Corp., and International Aero Engines (IAE) as defendants, the family's lawyers said in a statement on Tuesday. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Ricardo Tazoe, a 35-year-old Peruvian who worked for Banco Santander in Miami.

  • Sao Paulo Runway Reopens After Crash
  • The main runway at Brazil's busiest airport reopened on Friday, 10 days after a passenger jet skidded off its rain-slicked surface and crashed, killing almost 200 people in the country's worst aviation disaster. Authorities opened the recently repaved runway at Sao Paulo's Congonhas Airport even though it has not yet been entirely grooved to drain rainwater and prevent planes from slipping when they touch down. Landings will be restricted in wet weather until the surface is completely grooved, which could take weeks. In the meantime, flights arriving in heavy rains will touch down on the back-up runway at Congonhas or be diverted to the city's Guarulhos Airport.

  • Thousands Visit Brazil Plane Crash Site, Express Dismay Over Air Safety Woes With Brazil-Air Chaos
  • Brazilians by the thousands traveled Sunday to the site of the recent plane crash that killed 191 people, staring at the charred remnants of a gutted air cargo building, praying, and protesting the failures of their country's air safety system.

  • 3 Days After Plane Crash, Brazil’s President Orders Changes
  • Breaking three days of silence after the worst airline disaster in Brazilian history, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva went on television on Friday night to assure worried Brazilians that he had ordered immediate changes in the country’s flawed civil aviation system.

  • Brazil's TAM Admits Brake Not Working In Plane Crash
  • Brazilian airline TAM on Friday admitted that one of the thrust reversers on the Airbus A320 that crashed at San Paulo was not operating, but said that planes in such condition are considered safe to fly. TAM said in a communique that its Airbus A320's right braking system was deactivated in accordance with the Airbus manufacturer specifications approved by the Brazil's National Civil Aviation Agency (Anac). It admitted there were problems with the brake some days before the air disaster...

  • Investigations Into Brazil Plane Crash Continue
  • Investigations are continuing into what caused Brazil's worst air disaster, as attention turns to the plane's landing speed. The Brazilian president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, has declared three days of mourning following yesterday's crash, in which an Airbus jet belonging to the Brazilian airline TAM slid off the runway at Sao Paulo's Congonhas airport while landing, killing up to 200 people. Video footage appears to show the plane travelling along the runway at higher speed than other similar aircraft.The runway, which has been criticised for being too short, had been recently resurfaced, but not yet properly grooved to help drain rain water.

  • Brazil jet 'too fast on runway'
  • Video footage of the plane that crashed in Brazil on Tuesday, killing about 200 people, appears to show it moving down the runway at higher than normal speed. The Tam Airbus 320 overshot the runway after landing at Congonhas airport in Sao Paulo, and crashed into a building before bursting into flames.

  • Brazil crash data hints error, failure
  • RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil — Moments before their jetliner skidded off a runway and exploded as it slammed into a building, pilots of a TAM Airlines Flight 3054 screamed "slow down!" and "turn, turn, turn," flight recorder transcripts revealed Wednesday. The horrific details read before a congressional commission investigating air safety suggest mechanical failure or pilot error contributed to last month's accident in Sao Paulo, taking some heat off a government widely blamed for failing to improve the challenging runway, which pilots worldwide liken to landing on an aircraft carrier. The pilots were unable to activate the spoilers -- aerodynamic brakes on the Airbus A320's wings -- as they touched down on the short, rain-slicked runway at Sao Paulo's Congonhas airport, according to the transcripts.

  • Brazilian Aviation Crisis – Mechanical Error Or Governmental Failure? Or a Metaphor for Brazil Under Lula’s Rule?
  • Episodic international criticism of Brazil’s aviation system, as well as a huge triggering of public outcries over the recent crash of the TAM Airbus A320, has forced senior officials in the country to begin to take steps to implement, on an urgent basis, a series of changes.

  • Data Released to Suggest Error Caused TAM Crash
  • RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (AP) -- Moments before their jetliner skidded off a runway and exploded as it slammed into a building, pilots of TAM Airlines Flight 3054 screamed "slow down!" "turn, turn, turn" and "Oh my God!" The screams and other dialogue contained in flight recorder transcripts made public Wednesday suggest that the accident at Sao Paulo's Congonhas airport that killed 199 may have been caused by mechanical failure or pilot error.

  • Brazil pilots' last words aired
  • The transcripts of pilots' final exchanges before Brazil's worst aviation disaster have been read aloud to a congressional hearing. According to cockpit tapes, one pilot shouts to another to slow down as the other shouts: "I can't, I can't!".The Tam Airlines' jet overshot the runway at Sao Paulo's Congonhas airport in July, hit buildings and exploded. The transcript was read out before a congressional investigation into the crash, which killed some 200 people.

  • Last moments before the accident of flight 3504 of the TAM (Airport of Congonhas São Paulo, Brazil)
  • Transcript of a Honewell 30-minute solid state cockpit voice recorder, installed on TAM Airlines Airbus A320, which crashed during landing in Congonhas, Sao Paulo, Brazil on 7/17/07

  • Brazil, Don't Blame the Air Controllers, But the Man Where the Buck Stops
  • The siege around the common Brazilian citizen is an old story. It has been happening for ages. And getting worse. Consider what's going on in the airports to those who need to take a plane during this long All Souls Day holiday. A chaos for which not even President Lula was able to provide relief after a meeting in the Palácio do Planalto. Are the flight controllers right? Sure. Weren't they accused even of failure in the Gol's plane accident? Unjustly and foully they were so charged, without any doubt, because despite their work overload, they, day in and day out, still strive for putting some order in the skies.

  • AM Linhas Aéreas - Airbus A320-233
  • TAM Flight 3054 was a regular flight from Porto Alegre, Brazil, to São Paulo-Congonhas, Brazil. The plane was carrying 181 passengers and 6 crewmembers when it crashed on landing, killing all people onboard and 11 people on ground. The Airbus A320, operated by TAM SA, the country's biggest airline, skid off the end of the rain-soaked runway on landing, cleared the airport fence at the end of the runway and the busy highway but slammed into a gas station and a TAM building, causing an inferno.

  • Recorder shows flight crew's terror in Brazil
  • Moments before their jetliner skidded off a runway and exploded as it slammed into a building, pilots of a TAM Airlines Flight 3054 screamed, "Slow down!" and "Turn, turn, turn," flight recorder transcripts revealed Wednesday. The horrific details read before a congressional commission investigating air safety suggest mechanical failure or pilot error contributed to last month's accident in Sao Paulo, taking some heat off a government widely blamed for failing to improve the challenging runway, which pilots worldwide liken to landing on an aircraft carrier. The pilots were unable to activate the spoilers -- aerodynamic brakes on the Airbus A320's wings -- as they touched down on the short, rain-slicked runway at Sao Paulo's Congonhas airport, according to the transcripts.

  • TAM Jet Sabotaged?: THE PILOTS DIDN'T KNOW OF FAILED THRUSTER - "Only one reverser. Spoiler nothing!" Last Words of the TAM Pilots Before Brazil Crash
  • TAM executives have stated – but only after a Globo TV report exposed it – that one Flight 3054 thruster was inoperative. This was a known concern, but not a serious one because the thruster was only "complementary," "not essential" to landing. This all came, of course, after TAM's CEO stated that the airbus was in "perfect condition." So the spoilure failure was known, after all, per TAM's revised statements ... but on the cockpit tape transcript just released, the pilots are startled to find the thruster not engaging. They panic, react as if they were completely unaware of the problem. Mechanical failure appears to be the cause of the "accident," not "pilot error" as the Luiz da Silva government suggested shortly after the crash, and THE PILOTS DID NOT KNOW about it.

  • TAM A320 crew did not retard right-hand thrust lever


  • Brake Failure, Pilot Panic in Brazilian Jet
  • Panicked pilots of a doomed Brazilian plane are heard struggling to control the aircraft speeding down a rain-slicked runway in transcripts of a cockpit tape released yesterday. "Slow down! Turn, turn, turn!" screams the co-pilot. "I can't," says the pilot. "Oh my God! Oh my God!" The plane crashed, killing 200 people. • Transcripts suggest that failure of the aerodynamic braking system or pilot error may have contributed to the crash.



Tam Implosion

Security Cam Footage

Families wait for news

Speculation by Reporters

To read current news on TAM Flight 3054, visit the Tam Air Crash Blog by George Hatcher