'Many dead' in Brazil plane crash

nabil

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Mar 4, 2007
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Scores of people are feared dead after a passenger plane carrying 176 people crashed at Congonhas airport in Sao Paulo, Brazil, starting a major fire.
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The state governor said the chances of finding survivors were "practically nil", while a fire official said more may have been killed on the ground.

The TAM airlines Airbus A320 is thought to have slid off the end of the runway as it landed in very wet conditions.

Concerns had been raised about the safety of the runway during heavy rain.

There had been persistent, heavy rain in the two hours preceding the accident.

On Monday afternoon, a smaller plane skidded off the runway onto the nearby grass in similar conditions.

Major fire
TAM Express flight 3054 was carrying 170 passengers and six crew when it attempted to land at Congonhas airport in the heart of Sao Paulo.

The plane was travelling to the city from Porto Alegre in the south of the country.

After touching down on the airport's main runway at 1850 (2150 GMT), the passenger jet skidded before sliding across a busy road in a residential area.

It then struck a depot used by TAM for storing cargo and some fuel.

Brazilian television has been showing pictures of a major fire at the scene and the emergency services have arrived in large numbers to deal with the aftermath of the accident.

An eyewitness, TAM employee Elias Rodrigues Jesus, said the plane had exploded after slamming into the depot.

"All of a sudden I heard a loud explosion, and the ground beneath my feet shook," he told the Associated Press.

"I looked up and I saw a huge ball of fire, and then I smelled the stench of kerosene and sulphur."

A doctor at Sao Paulo's morgue said 30 bodies badly charred bodies had been brought in.

source: news.bbc.co.uk