Brazilian plane crashes into gas station

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070717/...il_plane_crash

By ALAN CLENDENNING, Associated Press Writer
27 minutes ago

SAO 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.