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Brazilian TAM to build air crash memorial at cargo service building

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    TAP Portugal Airlines Flight Returns to Sao Paulo after Bird Strike

    TAPTAP Portugal Airlines flight TP-82 made an emergency landing in Sao Paulo, Brazil, on October 21st.

    The Airbus A330-200 plane took off for Lisbon, Portugal, but had to turn back after a bird impacted its left engine.

    The plane landed safely after burning off excess fuel. Everyone aboard remained unharmed.

    The airline arranged a replacement plane for the passengers.

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    Poconé Crash Kills Brazilian Farmer Minutes from Airport

    What: Cessna 210
    Where: Poconé Municipal Airport, Brazil
    When: Nov 12 2011
    Who: 4 aboard, 4 fatalities
    Why: Twelve miles from the airport, the pilot apparently lost control and crashed. The plane took off at 5:12 pm, and crashed 12 km later in the Pantanal region of Mato Grosso.

    Martin Wagner, his son James, two mechanics named Dede and Alcindo died in the crash.

    Wagner, who is a local cattle farmer, was reported missing by his family, after which a search plane was sent out and did not locate them. The charred wreckage of the plane was located the next day after sunrise, only minutes from the airport. The owner of the plane died in the crash.

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    Latin Airports Plagued with Problems

    Brazilian officials have yet to agree on exactly what caused a TAM airliner to skid off the rain-slicked runway at Congonhas on July 17, killing all 187 aboard and 12 on the ground. Critics claim the runway is too short and lacks grooves to prevent skidding during wet weather.

    Mountains increase the risks at airports in Tegucigalpa, Honduras and Quito, Ecuador.

    Birds pose problems at airports in Panama City; Guayaquil, Ecuador; and Barranquilla, Colombia. A single bird sucked into an engine can down a plane.

    Six hundred vultures have closed Barranquilla’s airport for two hours daily since June 19, Illegal dumping by squatters around the airport attracts the birds.

    Peter Cerda, a Miami-based specialist in air safety said, ”We don’t have any airport in the region that we consider to be unsafe, including Congonhas,”

    Mexico City already has modernized approach and departure procedures, allowing airliners to shave a few minutes off flights, and it is getting a new terminal later this year that will increase gates from 33 to 59. But air traffic there will remain congested because the airport’s two runways are too close together to permit simultaneous use.

    A similar plan in Brazil has yet to get under way.

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    2012: Tam Remembered

    It is again mid July. Inevitably, in mid July, my thoughts turn toward Tam 3054. On July 17 2007, five years ago, a Tam Airbus failed its landing at São Paulo’s Congonhas airport and stole a hundred and ninety-nine lives. The casualties always number greater than those who died. Each of the 199 touched had families; and each family exponentially touches countless others. I came to know each of the families, and I loved them. I learned from them, especially from their strength in the face of adversity. What I think of too, is how that accident changed me, how I learned from the families left behind to pick up the pieces and move on.

    On this day, I want to remember these families, their grace, and their lost loved ones. We cannot forget that in their passing, a hole was left in the world.

    I hope that the families—my well remembered friends—have overflowed the holes in their lives with something else. Five years of life. I hope they have taken the opportunity to fill to capacity these last five years with a life well lived. What does that mean? A life lived to the fullest. It’s the good and bad and everything in between. I hope that this well-lived life has lit their dark spaces with light, and packed the emptiness with new memories, each to be revisited, like the pages of a beloved book.

    We are all each a harp of many strings, each string struck by memories that play one and many notes. The threads of our lives stretch from the past to future, distant anchors never seen and never known. Each day brings us a chorus of new, and distinct notes. Let us lose all regret, and only joy in the harmony of our histories and our tomorrows. It is the wholeness of these notes that is the music of our lives.

    I hope that in filling the hole with new life, that my friends can now painlessly cast the net into their past. I hope they have learned to embrace the roses in December. Memories are for us to cherish, each one a forever jewel in itself. Memories are a constant gift of joy that is never lost; and as we can remember with poignant joy the roses of summer in December, we can remember our lost loved ones in July. I do not smile because I have forgotten. I smile because I remember.

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    Brazilian Crash Prompts Probe on Airport Work

    Projects intended To Improve Runway

    BUENOS AIRES, July 18 — Brazil is planning to investigate if recent construction projects intended to improve runways at Congonhas contributed to the TAM crash, which killed at least 189.

    Officials emphasized that it is too soon to determine a specific cause but the world’s worst air crash in five years, is the source of sadness and outrage in Brazil. Critics of Congonhas airport have long predicted an accident like Tuesday’s.

    The Airbus 320, touched down and when the pilot realized he could not stop, he attempted to take off again, narrowly clearing an elevated roadway before crashing into a fuel station and cargo office. The capacity of the plane was 185 adults. The 186 people on board included a baby. The weight of the plane was within approved safety ranges. One day before the crash a small turboprop plane harmlessly slid off the same wet runway.

    Rescue crews continued recovering bodies. Authorities confirmed all 186 fatalities aboard the plane. The number could rise. The “black box” recorder has been delivered to the United States for analysis.

    The 6,362-foot runway at Congonhas is 500 feet shorter than the runway at Reagan National Airport, which is considered too short for large jet landings during rain. The newly repaved runway was scheduled to be grooved to channel rain. as standing water has caused delays in the past.

    A congressional panel is already probing Brazil’s aviation security system. Accusations have been made that airport authorities have taken bribes. Federal police are investigating the airport construction projects.

    The Sao Paulo attorney general’s office closed Congonhas runway to large jets. “The runway needs to be extended by 1,275 feet to provide adequate space to accommodate jetliners…The airport put at risk the lives of passengers, crew members and those living in the surrounding area due to the constant skidding caused by the inefficient drainage system.”

    Responding to objections from airport and airline authorities, an appeals judge lifted the ban. The Airbus 320 was not among those planes that had been restricted from landing.

    In Sao Paulo, South America’s largest city with a population of about 20 million, Congonhas airport is surrounded by densely populated commercial and residential neighborhoods. In 1996, a TAM flight crashed a mile from the runway, missing an elementary school.

    Gideon Ewers said, “Runway excursions account for something like a quarter of accidents. Anytime you run off the runway and are confronted with a steep slope, a sheer drop, a four-lane highway and buildings, it’s not good.” Ewers is with the International Federation of Air Line Pilots’ Associations. The International Federation of Air Line Pilots’ Associations represents pilots from over 90 countries.

    The federation urges authorities to add safety-strip extensions to the ends of runways or install “arrestor beds.”

    Since 2000, there have been seven accidents in Sao Paulo resulting major damage to aircraft. Six occurred upon landing. A Gol Airlines jet collided with a small private plane over the Amazon rain forest, killing all 154 people abpard just ten months ago, but Tuesday’s crash is the deadliest in Brazil’s history.

    A U.S. National Transportation Safety Board has an investigator at the scene to assist in the crash probe. Authorities will be combing the site, checking the runway slickness and the possiblility of pilot error. Former NTSB investigator Ron Schleede said. “Most runway-overrun accidents involve slick surfaces or planes going too fast to stop.” A Miami-based lawyer representing the families of 30 victims of the Gol crash, Ricardo Martinez-Cid said he has been contacted by attorneys for families in Tuesday’s disaster. Court actions could be filed after more evidence has been collected.

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    Air France Flight Makes Emergency Landing in Rio de Janeiro

    Air France flight AF-457 made an emergency landing in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on October 13th.

    The Boeing 777-200 plane heading from Sao Paulo–Guarulhos International Airport, Brazil, to Charles de Gaulle Airport, France, was diverted after it encountered hail.

    The plane landed uneventfully. All passengers and crew members remained unharmed.

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