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    Tam Air Suit Filed

    RIO DE JANEIRO (AP)–Relatives of victims of Brazil’s Tam Air CRASH filed suit in Miami seeking damages in 59 wrongful death complaints. Plaintiffs are seeking a jury trial for pain and suffering, lost value of life, funeral expenses and other damages. The TAM Airlines Flight 3054 crash killed 199 people. Masry and Vititoe’s partner Podhurst Orseck filed the first case ten days after the accident occurred.

    Charged are TAM S.A. (TAM), its pilots and maintenance personnel, France-based Airbus; Goodrich Corp. ( GR) of Charlotte, North Carolina; International Aero Engines AG of East Hartford, Connecticut; and Pegasus Aviation IV Inc. of Delaware. The thrust reverser slows the jet down when it lands. Without a working right thrust reverser, it didn’t have enough room to stop on the runway, he said.

    Atty Steven C. Marks said.”Responsibility not only lies with the companies that manufactured and handled maintenance for the aircraft,” and that the flight crew knew there were problems with the aircraft before the disaster because the plane’s right thrust reverser had been deactivated before the flight.

    Brazil’s largest airline, was trying to reach agreements with families of victims and did not have an immediate comment.

    src: Dow Jones Newswires; South Florida Lawyers blog

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    Hamburg – A320 nearly crashes during crosswind approach

    1st march 2008 – A320 nearly crashed during crosswind approach at Hamburgs RWY23.

    This wise pilot aborted his landing and saved them all from a crash. Pilots should be able to calculate the wind direction and speed to determine if they can execute a safe crosswind landing. This plane landed safely on the second attempt.

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    Santa Barbara ATR-42-300 photographs

    They say a picture is worth a thousand words. There are no words to describe the nightmarish war zone quality of the scene on the ground at the Santa Barbara crash site. Most of the photographs can not be shown–it is just that horrifying and heartbreaking. Our hearts go out to the families of the victims.






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    Russia R-44 Helicopter Crash with 2 fatalities


    Click to view full size photo at Airliners.net
    Contact photographerSergey Ryabtsev

    What: Robinson R-44 II
    Where: Nizhnevartovsk, Russia
    When: March 2, 2008
    Who: 2
    Why: On March 2, 2008, about 1320, the Robinson R-44 II, impacted trees and terrain near Nizhnevartovsk, Russia. The pilot and the passenger were fatally injured. The flight was conducted under Russian flight regulations.
    According to preliminary information provided by the Russian government, the wreckage of the accident helicopter was not located until July 2008. Initial examination of the wreckage revealed that the helicopter impacted a swampy forest area in a nose down, right roll attitude

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    Russia: Fatal Robinson Crash


    Pictured: A Robinson R-44 Raven II
    Click to view full size photo at Airliners.net
    Contact Photographer Vala

    What: Robinson R-44 II
    Where: Nizhnevartovsk, Russia.
    When: March 2, 2008
    Who: pilot and the passenger
    Why: The helicopter was destroyed when it impacted trees and terrain– a swampy forest area in a nose down, right roll attitude.

    The pilot and the passenger were fatally injured. The flight was conducted under Russian flight regulations and the wreckage was not found until July 2008

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    Santa Barbara ATR-42-300 Crashes Indian Face

    13,000 feet above sea level on the sheer cliff called “Indian Face” by the locals, buffeted by freezing winds, crews rappelled from helicopters to search the wreckage in a dramatic rescue and reconnaissance attempt. No survivors were found.

    The flame-charred tail of the twin-engine plane rested on the mountainside amid fuselage and assorted wreckage.

    The Merida airport six miles away is hemmed in among mountains in a region notoriously difficult to navigate. Terrain forced searchers to camp a mile away and hike in. Pilots–including the one lost in this flight–receive specialized training to fly through the area.

    Venezuela mourns.

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    Santa Barbara ATR-42-300 Crash Site Found. No Survivors.



    Santa Barbara Airlines 518 flight from Mérida to Maiquetía had 43 passengers and three crew members on board. Passenger list includes the Major of Mucuchíes Municipality, Mérida state, Alexander Quintero; foreign affairs expert Italo Luongo, and two relatives of the Vice-Minister of Citizens’ Security Tarek Al Aissami.

    Six nautical miles from the Alberto Carnevalli Airport, it’s point of departure, the wreck was discovered.

    Missing since Thursday, it failed to contact the Maiquetía airport air control tower within the 15 minutes after takeoff.

    Venezuelan Civil Aeronautics Institute director Ramón Viñas declared in a public statement, “Given the way the airplane crashed, we believe no people survived,”

    Officials with the Aeronautics Prosecution Office, physicians, pathologists, and forensic scientists and search and rescue teams are scheduled to begin removal of the aircraft and the victims.

    Firefighter Department Sergeant Johnny Paz told local news TV channel Globovisión that the airplane shattered. “The plane crashed at 12,000 feet high against a stone wall in the high plateau.”

    Status: Preliminary
    Date: 21 FEB 2008
    Time: CA 17:00
    Type: ATR-42-300
    Operator: Santa Bárbara Airlines
    Registration: YV1449
    C/n / msn: 028
    First flight: 1986
    Engines: 2 Pratt & Whitney Canada PW120
    Crew: Fatalities: 3 of 3
    Passengers: Fatalities: 43 of 43
    Total: Fatalities: 46 of 46 (confirmed)
    Airplane damage: Written off
    Location: ca 10 km NW of Mérida-A Carnevalli Airport (MRD) (Venezuela)
    Phase: En route
    Nature: Domestic Scheduled Passenger
    Departure airport: Mérida-A Carnevalli Airport (MRD/SVMD), Venezuela
    Destination airport: Caracas-Simón Bolívar International Airport (CCS/SVMI), Venezuela
    Flightnumber: 518

    518 departed Mérida (MRD) at 16:59 on a domestic flight to Caracas. Shortly after take-off the airplane flew into the side of a mountain. Weather reported about the time of takeoff (21:30 UTC) was:
    SVMD 212100Z 29008KT 9999 SCT013 BKN100 XX/XX Q1018=
    SVMD 212200Z 25005KT 9999 BKN013 OVC100 20/12 Q1021=

    Film of ATR42 landing at Mérida Airport. Note the surrounding mountains and the fierce wind.

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    Flight 518-Andes Mountain Crash, 46 on board


    Head of the Civil Defense for Merida, Noel Marquez, said locals saw the plane go down 500 kilometers (300 miles) southwest of Caracas, in the Andean region of Coyado del Condor.

    The Santa Barbara Airlines flight went missing after departing from Merida at 5:45 pm (2245 GMT).

    Rescue teams are in transit, according to Marquez. The plane they are searching for is a French-Italian-made ATR42 twin-engine turbo-prop. It crashed approximately 15,600 feet above sea level and sent no emergency signals prior to its disappearance. When air traffic controllers had been out of contact with flight 518 for hours, alarms went out.

    Advance rescue teams traveled toward the Paramo Mifafi valley. The first rescue team left Thursday night for the village of Mucuchies, an hour from Merida but won’t not arrive at the accident location for about three hours because of the steep terrain and near freezing temperatures. Marquez, said “Early tomorrow (Friday) two M17 rescue helicopters will be deployed.” Until then, over a hundred searchers are working on on the ground.

    National Civil Defense chief Antonio Rivero said officially that the plane is still listed as missing.The passenger list included a Venezuelan political analyst and relatives of a government official. The pilot had received special training for flying in the Andes and had been employed by Santa Barbara Airlines eight years.

    The 20-year-old plane had no record of technical problems but the Aviation Safety Network publishes that the ATR 42 series has been involved in at least 17 accidents its beginnings in 1984. Psychologists have been sent to counsel relatives waiting at the airport.

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    Five Manslaughter Convictions in Air Crash

    In October 2001, in thick fog, a Copenhagen-bound SAS airliner ploughed into a Cessna business jet as the airliner was taking off resulting in the deaths of 118 people in 2001 in Italy’s worst air disaster. Italy’s top tribunal, The Cassation Court, acquitted two senior airport officials who stood trial for the Milan’s Linate airport crash. The SAS plane slammed into a baggage hangar and burst into flames. All on board both planes died, plus four people in the hangar.

    Paolo Pettinaroli, spokesperson of an association of relatives of the victims, said he was “happy with the confirmation of the convictions, but I did not expect that they would acquit those responsible for the airports’ security…It was shameful then, and it is still today.”

    Following the disaster, the airfield was found to have safety shortcomings, and lacked a functioning ground radar system. The July 2006 Milan appeals court findings of multiple manslaughter as well as negligent disaster were upheld. Investigations verified that runway signs were confusing; the control tower failed to ask the business plane’s pilot to read back his instructions, ground radar was out of operation and safety procedures were poorly followed.

    Details of the accident
    In the fog, the private Cessna invaded the runway of SAS flight 686 which committed to take off. The collision at 270.5 km/h crashed the Cessna, instantly killing the four passengers. The MD-87 lost the right engine and debris from the Cessna weakened the left engine. Commander Joakim Gustafsson could not end the takeoff phase so he was forced to carry out a perfect textbook emergency landing. However the MD-87 crashed into the baggage hanger at around 260 km/h, bursting into flames, killing 110 passengers and four workers in the building. The only survivor was Pasquale Padovano, an employee of SEA, Milan’s airport management company. Italians, Swedes, Danes, Finns, Norwegians, a Romanian, a Briton, a South African and an American were killed.

    Upheld was:

    • a 6 year prison sentence for former head of air traffic control authority ENAV, Sandro Gualano. He received the longest prison term.
    • a 3 year sentence for Paolo Zacchetti, air traffic controller
    • a four-year, four-month sentence for Fabio Marzocca’s Former ENAV director general
    • a 3 year 3 month sentence for Lorenzo Grecchi, former official with the SEA airports agency,
    • a 3 year 3 month sentence for Antonio Cavanna, former official with the SEA airports agency

    Angelo Di Popolo, deputy prosecutor of the Cassation, requested cancellation of the acquittals for the ex-director of Linate airport Vincenzo Fusco (current ENAC director in the airport of Alghero-Fertilia), and the ex-director of the Milan airports, Francesco Federico (now ENAC director of the “Sandro Pertini” airport of Turin).

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    Convictions Stand in Milan Airport Crash

    Convictions Stand in Milan Airport Crash
    4 hours ago

    ROME (AP) — Italy’s top criminal court on Wednesday upheld prison sentences for five aviation officials convicted in a 2001 runway collision of two aircraft that killed 118 people, Italian news agencies reported.
    The Court of Cassation upheld the convictions of manslaughter and negligence and confirmed sentences ranging from three to 6 1/2 years in jail, the ANSA and Apcom news agencies reported.

    The longest prison term belongs to Sandro Gualano, who stepped down as chief executive of Italy’s air traffic agency ENAV after the Oct. 8, 2001, crash between an Scandinavian Airlines System airliner and a corporate jet at Milan’s Linate airport, the agencies said.

    The crash happened on a foggy morning when the SAS MD-87, bound for Copenhagen, rolled down the tarmac for takeoff. The jetliner collided with a business plane with four people on board then careened into a baggage hangar, killing four ground workers and 110 people on the jetliner.

    Investigators have described the accident as avoidable, caused by a combination of human error and poorly followed safety procedures. The ground radar was out of operation.

    Investigators cited confusing runway signs, and the control tower failed to ask the smaller plane’s pilot to read back his instructions, authorities said.

    Wednesday’s ruling upheld the sentence of former ENAV director general Fabio Marzocca to four years and four months in jail. Three-year terms were also confirmed for Paolo Zacchetti — the controller on duty during the crash — and two other airport officials, ANSA reported.
    Copyright © 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

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    Brazil jet thrust reverser ‘off’


    This photograph was produced by Agência Brasil, a public Brazilian news agency.Their website states: “O conteúdo deste site é publicado sob a licença Creative Commons Atribuição 2.5 Brasil”(This photo is published under the Creative Commons License Attribution 2.5 Brazil)

    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

  • Air Traffic Up

    Brazilian air traffic has been up for the end of 2007 holiday season. This is news as Brazil’s aviation infrastructure has been struggling since a fatal crash of a TAM airliner at Congonhas airport, which was Brazil’s main domestic hub, caused disruption and led the government to restrict flights and basically turn over most of the aviation leadership.

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    Top Ten Disaster

    The Tam Air Crash in Sao Paulo has made a top ten disaster list.

    #2. Brazil Plane Crash – Aviators call São Paolo’s Congonhas Airport “the aircraft carrier,” because landing on its notoriously short runway, surrounded by densely populated residential areas, is as touchy as trying to put down on the deck of a ship at sea. Though a Brazilian court had banned large jets from the airport in February, citing safety concerns, the ban was later overturned. On July 17, 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, smashed into a gas station and then 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.

    Read More here

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    Brazil Compensation

    Defense Minister Nelson Jobim announced Brazilian airlines will have to compensate customers for excessive delays of more than five hours.

    During the past 14 months after two fatal plane crashes, the Brazilian government limited flights at certain airports and allowed air-traffic controllers to reduce the number of flights they monitor.

    Brazil’s federal government is in charge of managing and operating the country’s ailing aviation industry, which has been struggling since the GOL and TAM crashes.

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    Reali Taxi Aerea responsible for 8 More Dead

    The Learjet 35 that crashed on November 4 in São Paulo, Brazil, is responsible for the death of at least eight people. The São Paulo-based Reali Taxi Aerea Learjet was attempting to return to Campo do Marte Airport just after takeoff in light rain. It slammed nose first into a suburban neighborhood. The deceased include the pilot, copilot and at least six people in the residential neighborhood.

    The head of Brazil’s National Civilian Aviation Agency, Milton Zuanazzi, resigned in October after two recent aviation accidents: the July crash of a TAM Airbus at Congonhas Airport and the September 2006 midair between a Gol Airlines Boeing 737 and an Embraer Legacy 600.

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    David Barioni Neto CEO

    SAO PAULO, Nov 28 (Reuters) -TAM, Brazil’s largest airline appointed David Barioni Neto as its chief executive, replacing Marco Antonio Bologna, who stepped down following disaster after disaster over the past year. Though Bologna resigned, he remains a special adviser to TAM’s controlling shareholders, the airline said in a statement.

    TAM hired Barioni Neto in September from rival Gol Linhas Aereas

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    8 Dead in New Crash

    Officials of Reali were not immediately available for comment on the crash of the Learjet 35 on Sunday. It was raining at the time, but not badly; the cause of the crash is unknown.

    The private jet can carry up to 10 passengers. The first three victims identified were not passengers.

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    Sao Paulo Crash Sunday Nov 4

    Reali Taxi Aero’s small executive Learjet 35 took off in the rain at 14:10 local from Campo de Marte Airport in Sao Paulo and crashed into a house in the Casa Verde neighborhood half a kilometre from the runway after taking off. Eight people died; the bodies of four men, three women and a baby were found in the plane wreckage.

    Three others were rescued, including Claudia Lima Fernandes, 30,who was badly burned, and an 11 year old girl.

    Other neighborhood houses had to be evacuated and are being evaluated for safety.

    Witnesses said that the jet, which took off from Campo de Marte for Rio de Janeiro, ploughed nose first into the houses when it seemed to attempt a return to the airport.

    This was Sao Paulo’s second large air tragedy this year. On July 17, a TAM Airbus crashed while landing at the Congonhas airport, killing 199 people.

    São Paulo is known for its large helicopter fleet. Businessmen often fly the vast city by helicopter to avoid traffic and security threats .However last Monday three helicopters crashed in Sao Paulo in two hours.

    Three people died. Five days earlier, after having mechanical problems, an air force plane crashed north of Sao Paulo, There were no casualties.

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    Chairman Resigns!

    At a press conference Oct 31 in Brasília, Board Chairman Milton Zuanazzi, the last remaining member of ANAC’s former board of directors of the National Civil Aviation Agency (Anac) announced his resignation from the board.

    Zuanazz based his decision on claims that the National Civil Aviation Agency was the “scapegoat” for Brazil’s current air crisis.

    He said publicly that he “would not like to work” with Defense Minister Nelson Jobim, a position which is certainly understandable since Jobim has been trying to remove him since July.

    He delayed his resignation to the current time to allow Jobim to find new directors. Zuanazzi says that Jobim is not well-informed about Brazil’s aviation system, and classifies some of his proposals as “reckless.” The last straw was Defense Minister Nelson Jobim’s proposal to increase the required distance between airplane seats. Doing so would force carriers to raise fares, Zuanazzi said.

    One wonders how raising the distance between airplane seats will increase the safety factor, which is at the root of the whole aviation problem in Brazil.

    Zuanazz recommends Civil Aviation Secretary Solange Paiva Vieira to be his replacement.

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    Tam: Business as usual?

    With July’s fatal crash and a year of turmoil in the Brazilian airline sector, it has been a tough year for Brazil’s TAM Linhas Aéreas. Following months of air traffic controller strikes, airport delays and flight cancellations, one of Tam’s Airbus A320s overran the runway at São Paulo Congonhas airport in a catastrophe that claimed 199 lives.

    TAM president Marco Antonio Bologna has been feeling the brunt of Brazil’s favorite blame game: “who is responsible?” Bologna is reluctant to discuss the accident other than to describe the measures taken by TAM to assist the victims’ families.

    What did cause the crash?

    Brazil’s aviation industry continues on in a climate of fear and mistrust.

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    Pleas for Brazil to Drop Criminal Investigation

    Brazil’s air traffic control problem did not begin in July when a TAM Linhas Aereas SA Airbus crashed into a warehouse in Sao Paulo, killing 199 people. There was another crash the year before, a crash which led to a criminal investigation.

    The criminal investigation relates to this event: the mid-air collision between a GOL Boeing 737-800 and an Embraer Legacy executive jet last year The Boeing crashed into the Amazon jungle, killing all 154 people onboard. The business jet landed safely.

    The International Federation of Airline Pilots’ Associations claims that “The bottom line is they’ve got the cart in front of the horse on this. If they’re serious about improving air safety in Brazil, they’ve got to wait for the (technical) report and swiftly apply any recommendations made by it.”

    IFALPA is asking the Brazilian government to suspend the legislative inquiry and the Justice Ministry to adjourn criminal proceedings.”

    CRIMINAL CHARGES

    Joseph Lepore of Bay Shore, New York, and Jan Paladino of Westhampton Beach, New York are the Legacy’s two American pilots. Additionally four Brazilian controllers face charges in the criminal case in connection with the accident.

    The probe by Brazil’s air accident investigation body has yet to publish its findings.
    The pilots’ association claims that “A Federal Police investigation running in parallel with the independent accident investigation … risks obscuring the benefits of a proper investigation.” The International Federation of Air Traffic Controllers also criticizes the police probe.

    U.S. and Brazilian officials say the Legacy’s transponder and its collision-avoidance system were not functioning at the time of the crash, and that this went unnoticed by its American pilots. However, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration warns that pilots flying Embraer Legacy executive jets can accidentally switch off the transponder when placing their feet on a footrest under the instrument panel. The pilot’s left shoe can touch the switch controlling both instruments and accidentally switch them into “standby” mode.

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    Gol Linhas Aereas Buyback Under Consideration

    The Tam Air crash revealed defects in Brazil’s civil aviation system. The system has been stressed subsequent to air traffic controller strikes and work slowdowns that have been causing mass delays and cancellations and damaged Brazilian airlines.

    Gol Linhas Aereas Intelligentes SA shares dropped since Brazil’s deadliest air accident in July, when theTAM passenger jet crashed in Sao Paulo and killed 199 people.

    Following the crash, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva responded to pressure by firing the defense minister in charge of civil aviation, and the government is imposing a plan to reduce air traffic at Sao Paulo’s Congonhas airport, the site of the crash and the nation’s busiest airport.

    The family-run fund that controls the company announced it is considering a share buyback.

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    Gol Goes On and On

    According to Brazil’s Defense Minister Nelson Jobim, critics are “playing politics” when they disparage the state of Brazil’s aviation industry, in which occured in the past year, the crash of a Gol jetliner over the Amazon in which 154 people died, and July’s disaster when an Airbus crashed into a warehouse in Sao Paulo killing 199 people.

    Nevertheless, during a seminar in the United States, the President of the International Federation of Air Traffic Controllers, Marc Baumgartner criticized the Brazilian Air Force which oversees Brazil’s air traffic control system for trying to punish the controllers. “The Brazilian Air Force invested lots of energy to arrest and prosecute its own workers but none to fix its (air traffic control) system.” He also said that “it’s a question of time before a new air accident happens again in Brazil.”

    So far, a military court has declined to indict five Brazilian air traffic controllers for the GOL crash. Two American pilots face charges in a civilian criminal court in connection with the same crash. A Congressional commission report supports the indictment of pilots Joseph Lepore and Jan Paladino.

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    Flight Recorder Details Heard

    Just before TAM Airlines Flight 3054 skidded off a runway and exploded as it slammed into a building, pilots screamed, “Slow down!” and “Turn, turn, turn!” as recorded by flight recorder transcripts disclosed Wednesday.

    If the congressional commission investigating air safety find that mechanical failure or pilot error contributed to the accident in São Paulo, that conclusion would take some heat off a government widely blamed for failing to improve the challenging runway. Pilots worldwide liken landing on it to landing on an aircraft carrier.

    According to the tapes, pilots were unable to activate the spoilers, aerodynamic brakes on the Airbus A320’s wings, as they touched down on the short, rain-slicked runway at Congonhas airport, according to the transcripts.

    The pilot, Kleyber Lima, 54, said “Only one reverser — spoiler nothing,” in the transcript, the first indication that something was wrong. The co-pilot, Henrique Stephanini Di Sacco, 54, says: “Look at that. Slow down, slow down.” Mr. Lima replies: “I can’t. I can’t. Oh my God! Oh my God!” Mr. Di Sacco’s last words are: “Go! Go! Turn! Turn! Turn!”

    The recording ends with screams and a woman’s voice, followed by an explosion.

    The July 17 crash killed all 187 people aboard the jetliner and 12 people on the ground.

    One of the two thrust reversers used to slow planes during landings, was inoperative. The airport’s runway is so short that pilots are warned to abort landings if they make any errors while touching down. TAM’s press office declined comment until the investigation is finished.

    Airbus spokeswoman, Barbara Kracht, said the aircraft manufacturer could not comment on the investigation, citing international aviation rules.