Brazil Crash Jet Was Trying to Take Off Again, Say Experts
By Jerome Taylor
A jetliner was forced to pull out of a landing at Sao Paulo’s Congonhas airport yesterday as new footage emerged of the Airbus 320 that crashed earlier in the week, showing the aircraft travelling along the runway at more than three times the usual landing speed.
Security video footage obtained by the Brazilian network TV Globo appeared to show the TAM-owned aircraft hurtling down the runway in just three seconds. Video footage of a similar aircraft landing just minutes beforehand showed the plane taking more than 10 seconds to complete the length of the 1,900m runaway.
More than 180 people were killed when the domestic flight to Sao Paulo from the southern city of Porto Alegre careered off the runway and burst into flames after hitting buildings at the northern end of the airport.
Since the crash, one of the worst in Brazil’s history, the government and airport authorities have been criticised over the state of the runway at Congonhas airport, which has a reputation for being dangerously short and slippery after heavy rainfall.
A TAM aircraft was rerouted to Sao Paulo’s international airport yesterday after coming in at an unsafe angle to Congonhas, the nation’s airport authority, Infraero, said.
Many people have been quoted in the Brazilian press suggesting that the reason for the crash was most likely to have been an excess of water on the runway. But experts said yesterday that the speed at which the aircraft was travelling in the video footage suggested that the pilot was in fact trying to "go round", a manoeuvre where the pilot tries to take off again after a failed or aborted landing.
Jim Burin, the director of technical programmes for the Flight Safety Foundation, said: "This accident looks increasingly like a failed go round. Why did the aeroplane have so much energy when it came off the runway? It’s unusual for an excursion accident to culminate in such a high-impact crash."
Brigadier Jorge Kersul Filho, the director of the Brazilian Air Force’s Centre for Investigation and Prevention of Air Accidents, said it appeared the pilot had tried to take off again before the crash. "That he jumped over the avenue was an indication he tried to take off. If he didn’t [try to take off ] he would have gone nose down at the end of the runway," he said.
Two aircraft skidded off the runway hours on the day before the crash and pilots often refer to Congonhas as "the aircraft carrier". In February a federal court banned three types of wide-bodied aircraft from landing there but the decision was overturned.
Federal prosecutors have applied for a court order to close the airport. In a statement the prosecutors said: "It is necessary to temporarily paralyse the activities at the Congonhas airport in Sao Paulo until a complete renovation of its runways can be completed and there is certainty that they are fully secure."
Fatal flight
New video footage appears to show aircraft speeding up before impact
1 Plane hurtles down runway at high speed
2 Pilot appears to attempt a "go round" take off
3 Clearing the airport barrier, plane then plunges into nearby petrol station and warehouse
February: Amid concerns that the runway was too short, a federal court bans three types of large aircraft from landing at Congonhas. The order is overturned.
March: In response to mounting safety concerns resurfacing work begins on the runway to try to improve the speed at which the surface drains excess water.
Monday: Following days of torrential rain, two light aircraft overshoot their landing zone and skid off the runway.
Tuesday: Twenty minutes after safety checks are made to the runway, Flight 3054 crashes, killing all 186 people on board and three people on the ground.
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