Brazil crash data hints error, failure By MICHAEL ASTOR, Associated Press Writer

Brazil crash data hints error, failure By MICHAEL ASTOR, Associated Press Writer
2 hours, 12 minutes ago



RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil - Moments before their jetliner skidded off a runway and exploded as it slammed into a building, pilots of a TAM Airlines Flight 3054 screamed "slow down!" and "turn, turn, turn," flight recorder transcripts revealed Wednesday.

ADVERTISEMENT


The horrific details read before a congressional commission investigating air safety suggest mechanical failure or pilot error contributed to last month's accident in Sao Paulo, taking some heat off a government widely blamed for failing to improve the challenging runway, which pilots worldwide liken to landing on an aircraft carrier.

The 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 Sao Paulo's Congonhas airport, according to the transcripts.

"Only one reverser. Spoiler nothing," 53-year-old pilot Henrique Stephanini Di Sacco says in the transcript, giving the first indication that something is wrong.

"Look at that. Slow down, slow down," says co-pilot Kleyber Lima, 54. Di Sacco replies: "I can't. I can't. Oh my God! Oh my God!"

Lima'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 aboard the jetliner and 12 people on the ground in Brazil's deadliest air disaster.

The Brazilian daily Folha de S. Paulo reported that according to the flight data recorder, one of the plane's throttles was in the wrong position as it touched down, causing it to speed up instead of slow down.

The congressional commission did not review that data publicly Wednesday. But putting the throttle in the wrong position would have only complicated an already challenging landing for the pilots.

TAM previously acknowledged that one of the jet's two thrust reversers, used to slow planes during landings, was inoperative. And speculation also has focused on the urban airport's runway, which is so short that pilots are warned to abort landings if they make any errors while touching down.

"That is the classic aircraft accident," said J.A. Donoghue, editor in chief of Aerosafety World. "There is not just one thing that causes it, but rather it is a cascading series of events."

The commission's president, Rep. Marco Maia, said Wednesday that he believes mechanical failure was a factor.

"From what we have determined, we can confirm that the machine failed," Maia told reporters in Brasilia. But he added that investigators must still "thoroughly examine all the possibilities."

Donoghue said that while it is too early to draw conclusions, the government's public probe hasn't helped matters.

"The accident investigation process is not going along according to international standard practices. Holding an accident investigation in public is usually not the way it's done. It's usually done in a quiet, academic way, as quickly as possible, but also taking time to get a complete picture," Donoghue said.

TAM's press office declined to comment on the crash until the investigation is finished. Airbus spokeswoman Barbara Kracht said the aircraft manufacturer also could not comment on the probe, citing international aviation rules.

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's administration has been widely criticized for failing to do more to address aviation problems since last September, when a Gol jetliner went down in the Amazon, killing 154 people. That crash touched off months of flight delays, cancelations and work stoppages.

Wednesday's revelations "will probably take the pressure off the government a bit, but the demand to improve the country's airport infrastructure will not go away," said Alexandre Barros, a political risk consultant for the Early Warning Institute in Brasilia.

The runway at Congonhas had been shut earlier this year for renovations, but was opened before it could be grooved — a process that helps water run off and provides better traction in rain.