São Paulo, Brazil – Experts puzzled Thursday over why a jetliner raced down a runway instead of slowing down before it crashed in a fireball that killed 189 people – an accident that set off a fierce debate over whether to close Brazil’s busiest airport.
Security video released by the air force showed TAM Flight 3054 speeding down the tarmac more than four times as fast as other planes landing around the same time. That raised the possibility of pilot or mechanical error instead of a slick and short runway widely cited as a likely cause.
The Airbus A-320 appeared to lift off again after rolling down the runway at Congonhas airport in a driving rain. It then flew just above cars in rush-hour traffic before slamming into a building Tuesday night, killing all 186 people aboard and at least three people on the ground.
It was Brazil’s worst air disaster and the worst anywhere involving an Airbus A-320, according to the aviation analysis website.
Brig. Jose Carlos Pereira, head of the national airport authority, Infraero, said he was perplexed by the video and hoped an analysis of the plane’s two flight recorders would explain why the jet went so fast after touching down. The recorders were being sent to the U.S. for study.
While experts struggled to figure out what happened, federal prosecutors asked a federal judge to “temporarily paralyze” Congonhas airport – a move that could disrupt air travel in Latin America’s largest nation.
Prosecutors said the facility should be closed “until a complete renovation of both of its runways can be completed and there is certainty that they are fully secure for full operation.”
Responding to warnings that such a move could create havoc in travel and cause severe financial repercussions for airlines, prosecutor Marcio Schuster schitz said it was better “to choose life over money.”
