http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19815779/?gt1=10150
SÃO PAULO, Brazil - A plane crashed and burst into flames Tuesday after skidding off a runway at São Paulo's airport that had been criticized as being too short, and all 176 people aboard were feared dead, the state governor said.
São Paulo state Gov. Jose Serra said rescue crews told him it was impossible any of the 176 people aboard could have survived the crash. Several media sources reported that individuals were taken to hospitals. It was unclear whether any of the people reported taken to hospitals had been on the plane or on the ground.
An official said at least 15 people were killed on the ground, bringing the confirmed death toll to 40.
The Tam airline’s Airbus A320 skidded off the runway at Congonhas airport, then crossed a busy road at the height of rush hour in South America’s largest city before slamming into a gas station, said Jose Leonardi Mota, a spokesman with airport authority Infraero.
'A huge ball of fire'
Tam worker Elias Rodrigues Jesus, walking near the site just as the crash happened, told The Associated Press that the jet exploded between the gas station and a warehouse owned by Tam.
“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 sulfur.”
Jesus said he saw one charred body, and Globo TV reported that at least seven people were being treated for injuries, some of whom were Tam workers who were in a building.
Aircraft tragedy
A Tam airline plane crashed and burst into flames at Congonhas airport in São Paulo on Tuesday.
Tam Linhas Aereas Flight 3054 was en route to São Paulo from the southern Brazilian city of Porto Alegre with 170 passengers and six crew members, Tam said in a statement.
“At this moment, we cannot determine the extent of possible injuries suffered by the airplane’s occupants and crew members,” the airline said in an earlier statement.
Distraught relatives of passengers crowded Tam’s check-in counters in Porto Alegre, complaining hours after the crash that the airline had not yet released a passenger list, Globo TV reported.
Runway lacks grooving
The accident happened during heavy rains, and critics have said for years that such an accident was possible at the airport because its runway is too short for large planes landing in rainy weather.
MSNBC.com has learned the airport’s main runway was under construction recently. Flights were approved for takeoffs and landings last month even though runways lacked standard grooving to provide traction for airplane tires and to facilitate draining of rainwater.
Congonhas logged cases of airplanes' sliding at the end of last year because of the condition of its runways. Repairs began at the end of February, and the runway was closed during heavy rain.
The main work was completed and the runway was reopened June 30. However, Edgard Brandão Júnior, the regional superintendent of Infraero, said grooving could not be completed in time because the process requires 60 days to "cure." The work was still under way and was being done at nighttime so as not to interfere with takeoffs and landings.
The Congonhas airport is an old airport used for domestic flights only, located directly in the city. Newer international airports are located well outside of São Paulo, away from highly populated neighborhoods.
Brief ban
A federal court in February briefly banned takeoffs and landings of large jets at the airport because of safety concerns at the airport, which handles huge volumes of flights for the massive domestic Brazilian air travel market.
But an appeals court overruled the ban, saying it was too harsh because it would have severe economic ramifications and that there were not enough safety concerns to prevent the planes from landing and taking off the airport.
Tuesday’s crash came 10 months after Brazil’s deadliest crash, a September collision between a Gol Aerolinhas Inteligentes SA Boeing 737 and an executive jet over the Amazon rainforest.
All 154 people on the Gol jet died. The executive jet landed safely.
The crash highlighted Brazil’s increasing aviation woes, as a surge in travelers overwhelms underfunded air traffic control systems. A Brazilian judge indicted four flight controllers and the smaller jet’s two U.S. pilots on the equivalent of manslaughter charges, but the defendants point to other problems — from holes in radar coverage to the inability of some Brazilian controllers to clearly speak English, the language of international aviation.
Controllers — concerned about being made scapegoats — have engaged in strikes and work slowdowns to raise safety concerns, causing or exacerbating lengthy delays and cancelations.
Angry travelers have stormed airline check-in counters and runways in Brazil, and fistfights have broken out in waiting areas
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