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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 insisted the deactivation was in accordance with proper procedures. However, nearly 200 people–passengers and crew–are dead.
Yet this was in accordance with proper procedures?
The airbus started to land at Sao Paulo’s Congonhas airport, and either aborted the landing or failed to slow down when the deactivated thrust reverser failed. The plane crossed the street, hit buildings and exploded.
Tam Airlines said the right thrust reverser was “deactivated” at the time of the accident. To quote them specifically:
“in conditions stipulated by the maintenance of the manufacturer Airbus and approved by [Brazil’s] National Civil Aviation Agency”.
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.
sources: http://news.bbc.co.uk
http://www.aviation.com/ap_070721_thrustreverser.html
Aeroflot flight SU-1513 had to divert and make an emergency landing at Koltsovo Airport in Yekaterinburg, Russia, on October 21st.
Cathay Pacific flight CX-157 had to divert and make an emergency landing in Manila, Philippines, on October 9th.
Gulf Air flight GF-506 had to return for an emergency landing in Bahrain, on March 9th.
Azul Linhas Aereas flight AD-8704 had to return and make an emergency landing at Viracopos International Airport, Brazil, on July 23rd.
