The radar was out from midnight until 2:30 am, and caused by an electrical problem. Travellers found themselves trapped in airports, unable to catch flights home. There was mass confusion in spite of the president’s speech primishing safety measures.

“Our aviation system, in spite of the investments we have made in expansion and modernization of almost all Brazilian airports, is passing through difficulties,” Silva said. “The security of our aviation system is compatible with all the international standards. We cannot lose sight of this.”

A new airport location will be chosen within 90 days but will take five years to build and is not a high priority. Congonhas, the nation’s busiest airport, has a slick, short runway considered a likely factor in the crash of the TAM flight that killed nearly 200 people; and the planned repair and remediation does have priority. The crash was the country’s worst disaster until Tuesday’s accident and it exposed widespread problems with the country’s air traffic control system.

Analysis of the recorded conversations should be available within a few weeks.

The post Radar Failure first appeared on George Hatcher's Air Flight Disaster.

The nation has had chronic problems with delays and cancellations on domestic flights over the past 10 months but this is the first radar outage.

Sao Paulo’s Mayor Gilberto Kassab said that building a new airport could take between five and 10 years and is not a priority.

Officials mistakenly sent part of the plane’s fuselage to the United States, thinking it was the flight recorder.

The real flight recorder had been located and would be sent to Washington for analysis.

The radar outage occurred when a short circuit cut off electricity during routine maintenance in the jungle city of Manaus. Power was restored by 1:30 a.m. Radar coverage was working again an hour later.

The ailing industry has not recovered from months of work slowdowns by air traffic controllers protesting precarious working conditions. holes in the country’s radar coverage, antiquated equipment and flight controllers with only rudimentary knowledge of English.

The post Radar Failure in Brazil first appeared on George Hatcher's Air Flight Disaster.

Authorities mistook a piece of the fuselage from the accident for the flight recorder.

The loss of radar from 11:15 p.m. Friday to 2:30 a.m. yesterday caused planes s to return to their points of origin or make unscheduled landings.

A short circuit turned off electricity during routine maintenance. When power went out, 17 flights were within the coverage area. Nine planes continued to their destinations, and eight were rerouted. None were in danger.

“This is total chaos. I have never seen anything like it, and it makes me feel very unsafe,”

The radar problem prompted American Airlines to divert 13 Brazil-bound planes.

Delta Airlines said six of its flights were also diverted.

Jose dos Santos, a 43-year-old cafe owner, was aboard a cancelled flight when the crew announced Brazil was not letting airplanes enter its airspace because of the radar failure. “I was saying, ‘Oh, my God, my life is over!’ I was in a panic, all I could think about was the Gol jet that crashed in the Amazon last year,” Santos said,

Four United Airlines flights were also canceled.

The flight cancellations and diversions followed a nationally televised speech by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

Authorities plan to build a new airport in Sao Paulo, where an Airbus A320 operated by TAM Airlines crashed Tuesday, killing 191 people.

The post Brazil’s Aviation Crisis Continues first appeared on George Hatcher's Air Flight Disaster.