Brazilian plane crashes into gas station

[yogib37 3]

AO PAULO, Brazil - A plane with as many 170 people aboard crashed and burst into flames in Sao Paulo on Tuesday after skidding off a runway that has been criticized as being too short in a driving rain, the nation's airport authority said.

There were no immediate reports of injuries or deaths by authorities.

The Tam airline's Airbus-320 skidded off the runway at Congonhas airport, then crossed a busy road at the height of rush hour in South America's largest city before slamming into a gas station, said Jose Leonardi Mota, a spokesman with airport authority Infraero.

TV footage showed flames shooting into the sky and clouds of black smoke billowing into the air after the crash, and witnesses reported hearing one loud boom followed by a series of explosions.

Brazilian media said the plane actually crashed into a building or warehouse owned by Tam, and television images showed firefighters spraying water onto a building bearing a Tam sign. Globo TV reported at least eight people who were on the plane or in the building were undergoing treatment.

Tam Linhas Aereas flight 3054 was en route to Sao Paulo from the southern Brazilian city of Porto Alegre with between 150 and 170 people on board, Mota said.

"At this moment, we cannot determine the extent of possible injuries suffered by the airplanes occupants and crew members," the airline said in a statement.

The accident happened during heavy rains, and critics have warned for years that such an accident was possible at the airport because its runway is too short for large planes landing when the runway is wet.

A federal court in February briefly banned takeoffs and landings of large jets at the airport 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 on three types of planes, 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 the airport.

Tuesday's crash came 10 months after Brazil's deadliest crash, a September collision between a Gol Aerolinhas Inteligentes SA Boeing 737 and an executive jet over the Amazon rainforest.

All 154 people on the Gol jet died. The executive jet landed safely.

[TracyLuis 0]

My husband gets on an international flight from Lima in about 5 hours and the LAST thing I want to read about are plane crashes....

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

My husband gets on an international flight from Lima in about 5 hours and the LAST thing I want to read about are plane crashes....

Watch a movie on HBO and get some shut-eye after it's done. Don't browse if you're easily upset, never know what you'll read.

[TracyLuis 0]

My husband gets on an international flight from Lima in about 5 hours and the LAST thing I want to read about are plane crashes....

Watch a movie on HBO and get some shut-eye after it's done. Don't browse if you're easily upset, never know what you'll read.

Good advice...think I'll take it

[homesick_american 1]

My husband gets on an international flight from Lima in about 5 hours and the LAST thing I want to read about are plane crashes....

Watch a movie on HBO and get some shut-eye after it's done. Don't browse if you're easily upset, never know what you'll read.

Good advice...think I'll take it

Plane crashes are pretty rare anyway; two in one day is even more unusual. Relax.

[doodlebug 3]

I think I'm gonna hurl. I really don't wanna have another panic attack tonight.

[SqdnGuns 21]

My husband gets on an international flight from Lima in about 5 hours and the LAST thing I want to read about are plane crashes....

Watch a movie on HBO and get some shut-eye after it's done. Don't browse if you're easily upset, never know what you'll read.

Good advice...think I'll take it

Plane crashes are pretty rare anyway; two in one day is even more unusual. Relax.

They come in threes, right?

[doodlebug 3]

My husband gets on an international flight from Lima in about 5 hours and the LAST thing I want to read about are plane crashes....

Watch a movie on HBO and get some shut-eye after it's done. Don't browse if you're easily upset, never know what you'll read.

Good advice...think I'll take it

Plane crashes are pretty rare anyway; two in one day is even more unusual. Relax.

They come in threes, right?

[homesick_american 1]

My husband gets on an international flight from Lima in about 5 hours and the LAST thing I want to read about are plane crashes....

Watch a movie on HBO and get some shut-eye after it's done. Don't browse if you're easily upset, never know what you'll read.

Good advice...think I'll take it

Plane crashes are pretty rare anyway; two in one day is even more unusual. Relax.

They come in threes, right?

No.

[TracyLuis 0]

That was just wrong, Guns....

[natty bumppo 293]

Well it also happen in Colombia today..

[homesick_american 1]

Well it also happen in Colombia today..

That looks less like a crash and more like the plane ran out of runway. That happens a lot and usually nobody is even injured.

[natty bumppo 293]

That looks less like a crash and more like the plane ran out of runway. That happens a lot and usually nobody is even injured.

surfs up !!

just like ...

LGA ... BOS ... SFO ... SAN

[Ladylethal 12]

Actually, the runway wasn't too short for the plane to land, the issue is that construction wasn't 100% done (it was lacking the runway to be "scratched" to prevent the planes from slipping when it was raining) and they shouldn't have authorized landing in that runway on a rainy day (Monday another plane slipped but stopped in the grass and nobody was hurt).

Also, it didn't hit a gas station, it hit the company's own mail transportation operations building, and then exploded. The gas station didn't explode, and just part of it was affected. There were 176 people on board and so far it's pretty certain there are no survivors. Also, there about 40 people working at the building and there are dead among those as well.

[Ladylethal 12]

And the list of passengers just went up to 180.