“How many people will be killed before the Brazilian government stops the [air force’s] live experiments on the travelling public’s safety?” said Marc Baumgartner, the president of the International Federation of Air Traffic Controllers.
Brazil is rethinking its flight patterns
Across the country, frustrated passengers whose flights have been delayed or cancelled are rioting due to the long lines in Brazil’s airports. Underpaid and understaffed air traffic controllers are at the hub of a logistical nightmare. More than 10 government agencies oversee aviation.
Baumgartner accused the Brazilian government of “chasing scapegoats” among the Brazilian air traffic controllers instead of “re-engineering the necessary safety oversight and risk assessment to prevent Brazilian civil aviation from falling into deeper chaos.”
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva promised to get tough on safety and build a new airport in São Paulo to ease congestion. “Our aviation system, in spite of the investments we have made in the expansion and modernization of almost all Brazilian airports, is passing through difficulties.” To ease the pressure, several measures are planned like bans on charter, cargo and executive flights to Congonhas. The question is what pressure will such changes actually ease: the stressed airport system, or the government taking the heat for the stressed airport system?
Aviation experts say that the Airbus 320 that crashed at Congonhas was too large for the airport’s short runways, that the runway was not textured properly and part of the plane’s supplementary braking system was not working. Last February, a federal judge prohibited the landing large types of aircraft at the airport, including Fokker 100, Boeing 737-800 and Boeing 737-700.
Carlos Gilberto Salvador Camacho, director of flight security for the National Union of Pilots, tokd a São Paulo newspaper last week. “There is subliminal pressure from the commercial airlines that if you don’t land there you are somehow hurting the companies that rely on their revenues from the passengers.”
“What exploded at Congonhas was not just the TAM jet and its almost 200 victims, but the credibility of the Brazilian system of civil aviation. Ten months ago, the country felt the impact of the worst disaster in its history of civil aviation, an incident which lifted the veil off the chaos in the industry, and we completely ignored it.” wrote Cezar Britto, the national president of the Order of Brazilian Lawyers after the Congonhas crash.
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Nearly four years after a civilian skydiving aircraft collided with a Marine Corps MV-22 Osprey sitting on a San Diego runway, the U.S. government has settled the civil case after suing the businesses involved for damages
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The single-engine plane crashed just after 10am on Wednesday morning on a secondary runway near Terminal 1 at the North Carolina airport.
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An All Nippon Airways aircraft carrying a total of 211 people landed safely at an airport in Hokkaido in northern Japan, despite smoke emitting from one of its wings.
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Two people were feared dead after a rare cargo plane crashed in the far north of the United States on Tuesday, troopers in Alaska said.
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Two people are feared dead after a plane crashed in Fairbanks, Alaska, on Tuesday.
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It is not known yet how many people were on board.
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The plus-size passenger refused to give up an extra seat on a plane to a toddler.
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Report says Russia may be behind GPS interference over Baltic Sea since last August
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Emergency services were called to Sunshine Coast Airport after reports there was smoke coming from the cockpit of a Bonza plane on Tuesday afternoon.
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VH-EBN (pictured) is the first of Qantas’ A330-200LR aircraft to be upgraded with Viasat-capable wi-fi antennae, and is expected to finish its three-week retrofitting this week. The remainder of Qantas’ international widebody fleet will be progressively refitted over the next couple of years.
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MANILA – Two Philippine Navy (PN) aviators were killed after a training aircraft they were flying crashed in Cavite province on Thursday. In a statement, PN spokesperson Commander John Percie Alcos said the Robinson R-22 trainer helicopter with tail number NHT-421 tried to make an emergency…
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Debris and damage left behind more than two months after a plane crashed on Interstate 75 in Collier County.
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Social media does enable those who have had their proverbial 15 minutes of fame to get an extension.
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An alligator caused some trouble after it decided to wander onto the runway at MacDill Air Force Base Monday morning.
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A Cessna 120 single-engine plane took off from the Talkeetna airport after 2 p.m. on Sunday. The pilot lost power shortly after takeoff and was able to steer the plane…
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A roundup of the most important stories of the day. I keep you up to date on the most interesting writings I find on other sites – the latest news and tips.
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If Ethan Guo is successful, he will be the youngest person to ever fly across all seven continents.
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Three people were killed and one person was injured in a light aircraft crash outside Emalahleni on Sunday.
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