Rio de Janeiro, Brazil – The pilots of doomed TAM Airlines Flight 3054 screamed “Slow down!” and “Turn! Turn! Turn!” seconds before their Airbus A320 skidded off the runway in São Paulo and slammed into a building last month, flight-recorder transcripts revealed Wednesday.
According to transcripts read before a congressional commission investigating air safety in Brazil, the pilots were unable to activate the spoilers – aerodynamic brakes on the plane’s wings – as they sped down the short, rain-slickened runway.
“Only one reverser. Spoiler nothing,” says pilot Henrique Stephanini Di Sacco, 53, giving the first indication that something is wrong.
“Look at that. Slow down! Slow down!” says co-pilot Kleyber Lima, 54. Di Sacco replies: “I can’t. I can’t. Oh, my God! Oh, my God!” Lima’s last words are: “Go! Go! Turn! Turn! Turn!” The recording ends with screams and a woman’s voice, followed by an explosion.
The July 17 crash at Congonhas airport killed all 187 aboard the jetliner and 12 people on the ground in Brazil’s deadliest air disaster.
Brazilian daily Folha de S. Paulo reported that according to the flight-data recorder, one of the plane’s throttles was in the wrong position as the plane touched down, causing it to speed up instead of slow down.
The congressional commission did not review the data-recorder information publicly but seemed to acknowledge the report’s accuracy by discussing how the information was leaked.
The commission’s president, Rep. Marco Maia, said he believes mechanical failure was behind the crash.
“From what we have determined, we can confirm that the machine failed,” Maia told reporters in Brasilia. But he added that investigators must still “thoroughly examine all the possibilities.”
Brazilian aviation consultant Elias Gedeon said it was too early to say whether the pilot put the throttle in the wrong position.
Folha speculated that the plane’s computer system could have interpreted an incorrect throttle position as evidence that the pilot was trying to take off again, automatically disabling the spoilers.
“There are signs that this happened,” Gedeon said when asked about Folha’s hypothesis. “But we can’t say 100 percent this was the problem.”
TAM’s press office declined to comment on the crash until the investigation is finished. Airbus spokeswoman Barbara Kracht said the aircraft manufacturer also could not comment on the probe, citing international aviation rules.
The airline has acknowledged that one of the jet’s thrust reversers, used for braking, had been deactivated before the crash.
Planes are allowed to fly with only one functioning thrust reverser, but it can make braking more difficult.
Video footage of the plane landing showed it speeding down the runway more than three times faster than other planes.
