TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overran the rain-slicked runway at São Paulo's Congonhas airport on Tuesday evening, crossed a busy urban avenue and struck a building, triggering an explosion that engulfed the aircraft in fire. All 186 people aboard the Porto Alegre-to-São Paulo service were feared dead; the total toll, including people on the ground, was put at up to 200.
More than 200 firefighters battled heat reaching 1,000 degrees Celsius to recover the dead. By midday Wednesday, 137 bodies had been pulled from the wreckage and three others had died at hospital. Officials said no survivors were expected.
Witnesses said the pilot appeared to accelerate near the end of the runway in an apparent attempt to clear the avenue and surrounding buildings, but the jet struck the adjacent structure and exploded. The Congonhas runway had long drawn criticism for its length, and work to improve wet-weather drainage had been scheduled but not completed.
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva declared three days of national mourning. If the casualty estimates hold, the crash would surpass a September 2006 mid-air collision that brought down a Gol Boeing 737 over the Amazon, killing all 154 aboard, as the deadliest aviation disaster in Brazilian history.
Historical summary. TurkishPress restated this wire report, first published in July 2007, in its own words.