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 As revealed by Jornal Nacional, Brazil's main prime-time TV news program, and confirmed by TAM Airlines, the Airbus that exploded in São Paulo after a failed landing, killing all 186 aboard plus an unknown number of people on the ground, was flying with a fault in the equipment which was meant to slow the jet down.
The A320 plane had its right-side reverse thruster broken at least since Friday, July 13. On July 16, a Monday, the day before the tragedy, the aircraft had had trouble stopping and almost went off the runway at the same Congonhas airport. The trouble with the A320 had been detected by the plane's electronic checking system.
TAM's president, Marco Antonio Bologna, and the airline's vice president Ruy Amparo confirmed that the reverse thruster wasn't working and had been turned off. According to them, however, this didn't represent any danger to the plane, since the jet's manual in these cases only recommend that the failed equipment be checked in ten days, but doesn't tell to stop flying the aircraft.
Bologna and Amparo, however, didn't confirm the information given by Jornal Nacional that the Airbus had trouble landing the day before the crash. According to the news show, the A320 commander had told airport authorities that the tarmac was slippery and that he had a hard time trying to stop the plane upon landing on July 16.
It was about 6:45 pm on Tuesday when the Airbus that had taken off at 5:16 pm from Porto Alegre in the South of Brazil, tried to land in Congonhas and instead skidded off the runway crossing the busy Washington Luís avenue and slamming into a TAM building where some employees were working at the time. The plane burst into flames which spread to neighboring structures. 188 deaths have been confirmed until now, but the work of rescuing bodies continues.
In 1996, a reverse thruster failure was pointed as the reason for another crash in the same airport. At that time, a Fokker-100 also belonging to TAM crashed over a residential area, a few seconds after takeoff. killing 99 people.
The failure of a reverse thruster is always a security risk, according to Roberto da Mota Girardi, a professor of aerodynamics at the renowned Aeronautics Technological Institute (ITA). "This is dangerous," Girardi told reporters, "especially in a short tarmac as the one in Congonhas.".
A plane without a reverse thruster would need a bigger runway to stop, informed the ITA professor. "I'm not familiar with the Airbus's operation manual or the details of TAM's maintenance system, but it seems odd that they would allow a period of ten days to evaluate the problem."
The reverse thruster is the aircraft's main brake during landing. When it's turned on the plane's turbines flow is inverted, causing the aircraft to quickly lower its speed. Only then the landing gear's mechanical brake system is activated.
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Reading you make me sick.
If you put 10 people in a room and 9 are saying this was an accident waiting to happen because 1. the government lifted an order banning certain aircraft from landing at Congonhas (how much do you think that judge was bribed to lift that? And yes I know that the A320 was not part of that ban) , 2. Didn't finish the construction on the runway (grooves) and opened it up to air tradffic anyway, 3. 2 planes skidded on that runway just the day before, 4. the airport has had a reputation for being an accident waiting to happen for years because of the short runways and poor urban planning, 5. knew they should close it but didn't because of the economic impact (now that sounds like an imperialist gringo move doesn't it? if that happened here, i predict you would say "all you Americans care about is money") and lastly the Brazilian government steals all the money that should be used for infrastructure as a whole (the root of most problems), its usually the 9 that are right and the one radical that is not. You, my lady, are the radical. The odd chicken out. So what does Lula know now? Whats the new fact? That the plane had a reverse thruster that didn't function? And that makes it all ok for everything to go on as is, and scapegoat TAM this time? Damn, no Americans to blame! I think most of the people on this site, Americans and Brazilians, love Brazil and want to see things change for the better. I care that my in-laws have the life that I think they deserve in Brazil. You are the predator. You want and accept scapegoats to feed your Brazilian national pride. It makes things much easier for you psychologically. Your a smart girl that is blinded by this. Sad. Why do you accept it? This is the same situation as the GOL flight that crashed in the Amazon. Cause and affect. Its not one cause, its a combination in both situations perpetuated by bad morale judgement, misguided logic and in your face corruption.
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