SAO PAULO, Brazil – A passenger jet crashed and burst into flames after skidding off an airport runway Tuesday, barreling across a busy highway during rush hour, officials said. All 176 people on board were feared dead.
In addition, as many as 15 people on the ground were killed.
The crash happened in a driving rain on a runway at Congonhas airport that had been criticized in the past for being too short. The TAM Airlines jet slammed into a gas station and a building owned by the airline, an airport spokesman said.
TV footage showed flames and clouds of black smoke billowing into the air after the crash of the Airbus A320.
“I was told that the temperature inside the plane was 1,000 degrees (Celsius), so the chances of there being any survivors are practically nil,” Sao Paulo State Gov. Jose Serra said.
That temperature in Celsius is equivalent to about 1,830 degrees Fahrenheit.
TAM worker Elias Rodrigues Jesus, walking near the site just as the crash happened, said the jet exploded in between the gas station and a warehouse owned by TAM.
“All of a sudden I heard a loud explosion, and the ground beneath my feet shook,” said Jesus, who added that he saw one charred body. “I looked up and I saw a huge ball of fire, and then I smelled the stench of kerosene and sulfur.”
TAM Linhas Aereas flight 3054 was en route to Sao Paulo from Porto Alegre when the crash occurred upon landing, TAM said in a statement.
Distraught relatives of passengers crowded TAM’s check-in counters in Porto Alegre, complaining hours after the crash that the airline had not released a passenger list, Globo TV reported.
Critics have said for years that such an accident was possible at the airport because its runway is too short for large planes landing in rainy weather.
A federal court in February briefly banned takeoffs and landings of large jets because of safety concerns at the airport, which handles huge volumes of flights for the massive domestic Brazilian air travel market.
But an appeals court overruled the ban, saying it was too harsh because it would have severe economic ramifications and that there were not enough safety concerns to prevent the planes from landing and taking off.
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