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Tag: <span>politics</span>

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What Is Sauce for the Goose is Sauce for the Gander

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva flies with a smart crew. They know it’s too dangerous, so the jet he’s on is not allowed to fly with one of its reverse thrusters deactivated. If it is not safe enough for him, why doesn’t the safety regulation apply to commercial flights such as the TAM airliner that crashed and killed 199 people last month? Isn’t it just as dangerous for them too?

The regulation that applies to Silva’s plane is ” a security rule for transporting the nation’s highest executive. “Air force commander Brig. Juniti Saito told a congressional panel during the investigation.

The problem is that one of the reverse thrusters used to slow the planes down during landings — was deactivated on that terribleTAM Airbus A320 crash. TAM Linhas Aereas SA said that according to government-approved safety measures. the plane was safe to fly.

Tell that to the nearly 200 fatalities of the crash: all 187 aboard plus 12 people on the ground.

Speculation as to the cause is currently focused the notoriously short. slick runway and the possibility that the jet’s throttles were set in the wrong position.

Congresswoman Luciana Genro said, “It’s obvious that no human life is less important than the life of the president of the Republic. The air force should try to stop Airbuses from flying with the reverse thruster deactivated.”


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Brazil Seizes Flight Control Data

According to the Tam Airlines transcript, the pilots panicked, crying “Oh my God!, Oh my God!” as they tried to slow down the jetliner which landed with inoperable spoilers and a thrust reverser.

“Come on! Come on! Turn, turn, turn, turn!” cried the co-pilot moments before a final utterance, “Oh no!,” was heard. The tape goes blank as the jetliner slammed into a cargo building at 137 mph and exploded.

In the wake of the airliner crash in Sao Paulo last month, Brazil’s top prosecutor Matheus Baraldi Magnan, seized records from key flight control centers in response to concern over Brazil’s civil aviation system.

Explaining the surprise data impoundment, Magnani said the military hindered his seizure, and “holds on to the information. It is not possible today to know the extent and frequency of problems. Only with that information will it be possible to evaluate and improve the system…The goal is to assure seizure of the incident records, and any information about problems in the air traffic control system, which will allow us to assess the risks passengers and crew face aboard aircraft.”

The government confirmed that France and aircraft builder Airbus filed a complaint over leaks of the Tam airlines flight’s black box.

The French bureau’s response on August third was that “All sorts of information, correct or incorrect, is circulating, along with speculation and attempts at explanations.”

“It is a serious error to try to draw conclusions on the basis of incomplete and unanalyzed information.”

A transcript of the cockpit voice recorder was released last week by a congressional committee investigating the accident on.
July 17 when the TAM Airbus 320 carrying 187 people overran the runway while landing at Sao Paulo’s Congonhas airport, crossed a road and slammed into an airport building.


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Brazil’s Defense Minister Ousted

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva fired his defense minister heeding calls for the removal of top aviation officials after nearly 200 people were killed last week.

Waldir Pires was forced out as defense minister. Nelson Jobim, a retired Supreme Court judge and former justice minister with close ties to Lula, replaced Pires.

Lula, who has been criticized for being slow in reacting to crises.

Jobim told reporters after taking office that he would decide by the weekend whether to replace officials at the airports authority, Infraero.

Jobim will have free rein to do what it takes to fix the ailing aviation system.

“We are going to do what has to be done … and spend what has to be spent,” the president said at Jobim’s swearing-in ceremony.

Yet airport chaos continues.

Air traffic controllers have held work slowdowns to protest outdated radar and radio equipment and poor salaries.

The crisis deepened when the radar outage forced flights to change course, causing delays. Weather and a runway problem in Sao Paulo have added to the woe.

More than half of all flights in the country were delayed or canceled on Wednesday for the fourth straight day.

To reduce the delays and cancellations, Brazil’s aviation authority temporarily suspended ticket sales for flights to and from Congonha.


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Prosecutors calling for closure of Sao Paulo airport

Brazilian prosecutors call for the immediate closure of Sao Paulo’s airport today after the country’s worst air disaster in its history.

Governor Jose Serra declared that the volume of air traffic at Congonhas must to be drastically. A plane belonging to Brazil’s TAM airlinehit a nearby warehouse and exploded, killing 186 people on board and three on the ground.

Footage shows Flight 3054 accelerating as it hit the short runway. Authorities believe the pilot tried to abort his landing and take off again.

Rescue workers suspended the search for victims when the building at the crash scene threatened collapse. 4 Europeans, three from France and one from Portugal, were on board.

Pilots are instructed to touch down within the first 1,000ft (300m), or pull up and circle round again. Yesterday, another TAM airline jet was rerouted after coming in at an unsafe angle.

The official statement is that it is necessary to temporarily paralyze the activities at the Congonhas Airport in Sao Paulo until a complete renovation of both of its runways can be completed and there is certainty that they are fully secure for full operations.

The senate leader of the Social Democratic Party (PSDB), Arthur Virgilio – whose colleague, the opposition leader Julio Redecker, was killed in the crash – said President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, needed to “act, not to talk…Otherwise his term will be marked by the suffering and pain of so many Brazilians who could still be alive.”

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