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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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    Brazil Regulator Proposes Restrictions

    For Immediate Release
    Sept 20, 2007

    SAO PAULO, Brazil-Brazil’s civil aviation regulator proposed restricting flights at the nation’s busiest airport on Thursday, hoping to improve safety at the site of the nation’s deadliest plane crash.

    The rules proposed by the Civil Aviation Authority would restrict destinations to a 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) radius of the Congonhas airport and would bar connecting flights from the airport.

    The Defense Ministry will now assess the report, and Defense Minister Nelson Jobim announced separately that authorities will decide within one month the precise location for construction of a third runway at Sao Paulo’s Guarulhos airport.
    Guarulhos handled mostly international flights before the July 17 crash at Congonhas, but many domestic flights were transferred there after the crash, prompting officials to revive a long dormant plan for the extra runway.

    As many as 5,000 families living near Guarulhos may have to be relocated to make way for the runway, depending on the location selected, Brazil’s Agencia Estado news service said.

    The proposals grow out of a review of operations at Congonhas following the crash in which a TAM airliner ran off the runway and slammed into a building two months ago, killing 199 people.

    Officials have not determined a cause, but many experts have said that Congonhas’ main runway is too short and that the airport _ Brazil’s busiest _ handles far too many flights.

    The 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) limit would let airlines fly to key destinations such as Brasilia, Rio de Janeiro and cities in southern Brazil, but not to tourist destinations in the northeast.

    TAM Linhas Aeras SA and Gol Linhas Aereas Inteligentes _ Brazil’s two largest airlines _ previously used Congonhas as a major hub, but are now reorganizing operations.

    The regulators also proposed limiting the number of passengers aboard flights, and restricting takeoffs and landings to 33 per hour at Congonhas, cutting overall passenger capacity at the airport to 4,700 per hour from 5,100 per hour.
    Jobim, whose ministry oversees Brazilian civil aviation, earlier announced plans to for an escape area at the end of the runway and limits on operations in wet conditions.

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    Spain Punishes Officers for Body Misidentification

    George’s Point of View

    After 30 bodies were misidentified and sent to the wrong grieving families, General Vicente Navarro received a three year sentence; and Commander Jose Ramirez and Captain Miguel Saez received 18-month sentences.

    Some of the bodies had to be exhumed so that the misidentification could be verified.

    Sixty-two soldiers died in the Yak-42 crash in Turkey on May 26, 2003. Imagine how the families felt. First they have to suffer the deaths. Then almost half of the victims were misidentified. And remember to the families, these weren’t random victims. They were husbands and sons.

    Imagine how the families felt when they had to dig up their husbands and sons and have the remains crosschecked with dental records and DNA samples. It probably wasn’t limted to 30, either; they probably exhumed all the victims except for whichever ones might have been visually recognizable by family members.

    One wonders if the buck stopped in the right place. Was the decision not to perform DNA/Dental verification really made by General Vicente Navarro or was it a decision that was passed down to him from defence minister Federico Trillo? Isn’t there a public policy of aviation procedure in cases such as this? My question is not whether the sentence is just, but whether the right individual was sentenced.

    Carelessness of this profundity goes beyond cruelty.

    If I were a Spanish lawyer or on the Ministerio de Fomento, Civil Aviation, I’d be going through policies with a fine toothed comb. I’d love to hear from Madrid to find out just exactly what they’ve done in the past three years to prevent this kind of inhuman treatment in the future.

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    Has Brazil Overcome its Aeronautic Crisis?

    Three ANAC directors ( Denise Abreu, Jorge Luiz Veloso and Leur Lomanto) have resigned, leading ANAC ( Brazil’s National Civil Aeronautics Agency) to claim that the country’s aeronautic crisis has been overcome–a political move laying the blame of the entire system on the heads of three individuals.

    President Lula told local radio that “problems still exist at the airports.” Statistics show that 11 percent of flights, 20 percent of which were canceled, were delayed during the holidays on Independence Day.

    ANAC claims that problems began in Sept. 2006, when a GOL plane crashed in Mato Gross, killing 154, but the problem stems from a much earlier budget cut. The air disaster merely drew attention to the growing problem. The underfunded Brazilian air system has suffered from cutbacks and lowered standards across the board. Planes have been out of service for maintenance, and the airline Varig stopped flying.

    When overworked traffic controllers stated their demands, a group of them was transferred from Air Defense to Civil Aviation.

    After the TAM plane crash in July, killing 200 people, the Congonhas runway (known for its abbreviated length) in Sao Paulo was closed for resurfacing.

    Replacements for Denise Abreu, Jorge Luiz Veloso and Leur Lomanto, have not been selected.

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    Bhoja Detained; Released; Controlled

    The Arshad Jalil family owns 80% of Bhoja Air. Farooq Bhoja who owns a small percentage of Bhoja Air was detained and questioned after the crash of the Bhoja Air jet Friday. Now Bhoja is on the “control list” forbidden to leave Pakistan. A criminal investigation has been launched, as well as an aviation investigation, and a judicial commission.

    Nadeem Yousufzai of the Civil Aviation Authority denied that political pressure was behind the Bhoja Air’s permit.

    I am just wondering when they arrest the owner of Air Blue, the CAA and the DGCA.

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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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