TAM Airlines Flight 3054

TAM Airlines Flight 3054 (JJ 3054) July 17, 2007. All passengers and crew were killed in the crash, as well as a dozen people on the ground

Tam Air Crash-More than a Year ago

We have not forgotten. We will never forget.

Revisiting the news

One Year Ago. Today.

Let's look at the numbers.

How many lives does one person impact? It is a huge number.

Think about it. Before you're out in the world, just getting through school, you know well over a thousand people. You meet people every day, through work, through church, through hobbies, through life.

So what does it mean to the world when a hundred and ninety nine people are suddenly gone?

There's a hole in the fabric of life, and it's one that no patch can fix.

The tam air crash is one that left parents without children.

It left children without parents.

It is a tragedy that stole sisters and brothers.

It stole the lives of children and grandchildren who will never be born.

Standing around courtrooms and boardrooms, there will be companies that talk about catastrophic loss of life--but those are only words.

What of those children who wake in the night, and cry for parents they will never see again? What of the wives and husbands who won't wash a shirt because it still bears the scent of their other half, who won't fluff a pillow because it still bears the shape of someone who will never sleep in that bed again?

There is no measure for the loss of a life. What is the measure of the loss of a hundred and ninety-nine lives?

You are gone, but not forgotten.

Let Us Not Forget The Day

BRAZIL'S WORST-EVER AIR DISASTER

Is it just one year ago?

199 Dead in Sao Paulo Crash

199 people were killed in Brazil's worst plane crash, a product of a country with an inadequate air travel network that has been plagued by havoc.

Witness Paulo Carol imagined he was at the set of a Hollywood disaster film when right in front of his taxi, an airplane crossed six lanes of the Avenida Washington Luis. He and his passengers fled on foot.

The Airbus A-320 operated by the Brazilian airline TAM skidded off the runway after touching down-- and collided with cars and through a gas station before slamming into a TAM maintenance building. 180 deaths were passengers on the Airbus jet. More deaths included Tam employees in the building.

Luiz Santos who barely escaped the explosion, said "The airplane was coming right at me. I could hear the sound of the engines and then it exploded." His windows and the back end of his truck were shattered, but Santos and his passenger escaped.

Flight JJ 3054 left Porto Alegre at 5:16 p.m. and landed at Congonhas two hours later. The plane apparently touched down too far down the runway.

Accidents have made flying in South America dangerous to contemplate. Flight controllers are overworked, underpaid and untrained, and rely on aging and defective radar technology in the Amazon.

In September, a Gol airlines Boeing 737 collided with a private jet over the Amazon, killing 154. That investigation is ongoing.

The country's air travel infrastructure has been unable to keep up with Brazil's fast economic growth.

Parentes pintam céu estrelado para homenagear vítimas de acidente da TAM

PATRÍCIA ARAÚJO

Grupo de cerca de 150 pessoas esteve neste domingo (15) no local do acidente.
Manifestantes querem que sejam entregues relatório do Cenipa e laudo do IC.

A quase um mês de completar um ano do maior acidente da aviação brasileira, parentes e amigos das 199 vítimas da queda do vôo JJ 3054 da TAM decidiram trocar o luto por uma mensagem de esperança e luta pela impunidade.

Na tarde deste domingo (15), eles substituiram da cor preta que coloria os tapumes que circulam o terreno onde ficava o antigo prédio da TAM Express, na Zona Sul de São Paulo, por um céu azul estrelado 199 vezes. Em cada desenho branco, uma flor de mesma cor foi colocada para representar um dos mortos no início da noite de 17 de julho de 2007.

Veja a cobertura do acidente

“A gente sempre diz que eles viraram estrelinhas”, disse a secretária Beth Dorneles Haenser, que teve a irmã Ângela morta no acidente. Esta foi a primeira vez que ela deixou a cidade de Porto Alegre (RS) para participar de uma manifestação de parentes de vítimas do acidente em São Paulo. “Eu custei até ter coragem de vir. Aqui tu vês o local e imagina que podia ter sido bem pior, muito mais gente podia ter morrido”, afirmou.

Cerca de 150 pessoas participaram da manifestação neste domingo. A chuva forte que atingiu a cidade chegou a atrapalhar o grupo, que saiu correndo do terreno e, em seguida se dirigiu ao saguão de embarque do Aeroporto de Congonhas.

Protesto
O grupo passou cerca de 30 minutos no saguão do aeroporto. Com faixas e banners com nomes de várias das vítimas, eles se concentraram em frente ao check in da TAM, que foi paralisado. Um megafone foi usado pelo pai de Rebeca Gunter Haddad, de 14 anos, que também morreu no acidente. Christopher Haddad fez um discurso emocionado repleto de frases de ordem como “o lucro acima de tudo mata”.

“São 11 meses de dor e de tragédia. Nós queremos o laudo do Instituto de Criminalística e o relatório do Cenipa”, disse. Segundo ele, para que a polícia possa concluir o inquérito que investiga o acidente os dois documentos são necessários, mas eles não são entregues. “Dessa vez, a lei nesse país vai ser cumprida. Senão, daqui a 30 anos, nós vãos continuar vindo aqui todos os meses. Dessa vez os culpados vão para a cadeia”, afirmou.

A reportagem do G1 entrou em contato com a TAM, que até a publicação desta nota não havia se pronunciado. Também foi tentado contato com o Cenipa e o IC, mas não houve retorno.

src: http://g1.globo.com

Brazil's Call for Change: A320 Crash

One day after a TAM Airlines Airbus A320 crashed in Brazil, killing at least 189 people, the International Federation of Air Line Pilots' Associations chimed in on Wednesday, "Runways around the world have inadequate overrun areas."

The airbus was trying to land on a wet runway at Sao Paulo Cagonhas Airport, and when they were unable to stop, they took off again.

The airbus managed to clear the airport fence and a highway. However it crashed into a gas station and a building then exploded into flame.

IFALPA said, Runway-end safety areas should be established at all airports with airline operations, with an overrun space at least 800 feet long or an arrestor system that could halt an errant aircraft.

The 6,362-foot runway in question has often been criticized as being too short.

Almost 200 Feared Dead in Air Crash

Brazilian officials now fear at least 195 people are dead from Tuesday night's jetliner crash in Sao Paulo. The TAM airlines Airbus-320 was on a domestic flight to Sao Paulo from the southern city of Porto Alegre when it skidded off the end of the rain-slicked runway, crashed into a gas station and a building and burst into flames.