BRAZIL:The world's worst air accident in five years killed more than 200 people in Brazil on Tuesday night, leaving the country stunned at a second major air disaster in 10 months and the government struggling to quell doubts about its capacity to manage the air network.
The accident happened as a TAM passenger jet from southern Brazil came in to land at São Paulo's Congonhas airport. In heavy rain it failed to stop after touching down, veering left instead before, according to witnesses, it desperately tried to take off again, skipping over a multilane motorway.
It then crashed into a building operated by the same airline and exploded into flames. There were 186 people on board. Firefighters say at the height of the blaze temperatures inside the plane reached 1,000C and there was no hope of survivors.
At least 14 people were killed on the ground and rescue services are still looking for other possible victims. Witnesses described a scene of horror when the plane burst into flames and set fire to the building, a TAM cargo centre.
People threw themselves from the building while motorists and staff fled from the forecourt of a petrol station located right beside the crash site. Other motorists on the motorway at the time - the height of the rush hour - told of miraculous escapes as the plane careered over them before crashing beside them.
The accident comes after a crisis lasting months in Brazil's air transport system sparked by a mid-air collision over the Amazon which killed 153 people last September and which has led to widespread charges of complacency and incompetence against authorities and the government.
The runway involved in Tuesday's crash is Brazil's busiest and had long been criticised by pilots as highly dangerous in wet weather.
After drawn-out wrangling, authorities recently closed it for 45 days for resurfacing with the intention of making it safer during rain.
It was only reopened at the end of June and even then authorities said the final part of the works - adding grooves to aid grip - would only be completed later this month but said it was safe to operate before this was done.
But on Monday, which was the first day of rain in the city since the runway reopened, planes were again slipping off the runway, though without any serious incidents. Now authorities will have to see if in fact the runway was still not ready to handle planes again.
Even in dry weather Congonhas is considered a very tricky place to land by pilots because its runway is short - less than two kilometres.
Regular passengers flying into it are used to flying low over the tops of high-rise buildings on the approach before touching down and braking hard.
Air safety experts have long warned that a short runway in an airport located right in the centre of a densely urban area means that pilots have no margin for error and that when accidents do happen the impact is worsened by the proximity to buildings and roads.
Congonhas was built in the 1920s on what was then the edge of the city but following decades of uncontrolled growth it has been swallowed up and is now located right beside the centre.
But despite the dangers of being in such a location, in recent years traffic using it has galloped ahead with 47,000 people a day now passing through what is Brazil's main hub. Rather than start moving to alternative locations, airlines have fought for more slots at the airport which travellers like for its convenience, since it is located close to the central area and nearby financial centres. São Paulo's other airport is further out of the city and the main motorway to it is frequently the most gridlocked in a city notorious for its traffic jams.
In the last decade the government has poured more money into Congonhas in order to expand the terminal to relieve overcrowding. Now it has indicated that in light of the crash the eventual closure of the airport will be up for discussion.
As well as the problems in Congonhas the country's air traffic control system has also been a major worry for air travellers in Brazil since last September's crash revealed serious problems.
Since that crash the controllers have been in dispute with the government saying they are undermanned, overstretched and working with outdated equipment. Their representatives have said that their superiors have forced them to work beyond what they consider safe in order to keep Brazil's burgeoning air transport network going.