Around noon on August 4, 2013, an Air China Airbus CA4538 A319-115 was taxiing for departure in Yiwu, Zhejiang, China to Chengdu when the plane slid off the runway into a pitch covered area.
There was no damage reported and no injuries, but the airport was shut down, and passengers taken to Xiaoshan Airport
74 passengers were aboard.
The incident is under investigation.
LATAM Airlines flight JJ-3264 had to reject take off from Sao Paulo, Brazil, on February 22nd.
The Airbus A320-200 plane was accelerating to take off for Belo Horizonte, Brazil, when the crew rejected take off reporting an engine fire indication.
The plane was towed to the apron. All 131 passengers and 6 crew members remained uninjured.
Here is where the disaster stands:
On July 17, 2007 the pilot of TAM Airlines Flight JJ3054, tried to land at Congonhas, but realizing he wouldn’t be able to stop in time on the rain-slicked tarmac, tried to take off again.
He failed.
The Airbus A320 skidded across a road and smashed into a building owned by the airline. The ensuing fireball killed all 186 people on the plane and 13 more on the ground, making this the worst air disaster in Brazilian history.
The thrust reverser had been deactivated during maintenance checks, the airline confessed. The reverser is used to help jets slow down on landing. Tam Airlines insists the deactivation was in accordance with proper procedures. However, nearly 200 people–passengers and crew–are dead.
Brazil’s Globo TV televised that a problem with the right thrust reverser had emerged four days prior to the crash.
The Airbus’s manual stipulates that ten days can lapse after a problem is first detected in an inspection and the plane can continue to operate in the meantime.
Aviators call São Paolo’s Congonhas Airport “the aircraft carrier,” because landing on its short runway, surrounded by densely populated residential areas, is like landing on the deck of an aircraft carrier. Though a Brazilian court had banned large jets from the airport in February, citing safety concerns, the ban was later overturned.
Masry and Vititoe is participating in the litigation.
Click to view full size photo at Airliners.net
Contact Photographer Alan Olivieri
BRAZIL’S WORST-EVER AIR DISASTER
200 Feared Dead in Sao Paulo Crash
At least 195 people were killed in Brazil’s worst plane crash, a product of a country with an inadequate air travel network that has been plagued by havoc.
Witness Paulo Carol imagined he was at the set of a Hollywood disaster film when right in front of his taxi, an airplane crossed six lanes of the Avenida Washington Luis. He and his passengers fled on foot.
Airbus A-320 operated by the Brazilian airline TAM, skidded off the runway after touching down and collided with cars and through a gas station before slamming into a TAM maintenance building. 180 deaths were passengers on the Airbus jet. Fifteen more deaths included Tam employees in the building.
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Luiz Santos who barely escaped the explosion, said “The airplane was coming right at me. I could hear the sound of the engines and then it exploded.” His windows and the back end of his truck were shattered, but Santos and his passenger escaped.
Flight JJ 3054 left Porto Alegre at 5:16 p.m. and landed at Congonhas two hours later. The plane apparently touched down too far down the runway.
Accidents have made flying in South America dangerous to contemplate. Flight controllers are overworked, underpaid and untrained, and rely on aging and defective radar technology in the Amazon.
In September, a Gol airlines Boeing 737 collided with a private jet over the Amazon, killing 154. That investigation is ongoing.
The country’s air travel infrastructure has been unable to keep up with Brazil’s fast economic growth.
What: Air India Airbus A319-100 en route from Bhopal to Indore
Where: Bhopal
When: Oct 19th 2011
Who: 70 passengers
Why: The Air India flight took off normally but once in the air developed a hydraulic failure.
The flight returned to the airport and made a safe landing after being in the air for a quarter of an hour.
Passengers were booked on alternative flights.
Iberia flight IB-6400 had to reject takeoff from Mexico City, Mexico, on February 28th.
The Airbus A340-600 plane was accelerating to takeoff for Madrid, Spain, when the crew rejected takeoff due to an engine indication.
The plane safely returned to the apron. All passengers and crew members remained unharmed.
What: Iran Aseman Fokker 100 en route from Tehran Mehrabad to Tabriz
Where: Tabriz Airport
When: Aug 26 2010
Who: 103 passengers, 7 crew
Why: While landing during a storm, the plane overran the runway and ended up nose cone down in a ditch, well past the pavement. (An alternative source said the plane lost control after having a flat on landing.) Passengers described landing, then skidding after landing. The runway was slippery with rain. The plane was evacuated on site, and passengers taken to the gate. Two passengers had minor injuries.
