More Update on Brazil's Plane Crash

Up to 200 people are feared dead after a passenger jet crashed into a fuel depot and burst into flames while landing in Sao Paulo, Brazil.


Plane crashed into fuel depot at Brazilian airport
Up to 200 are feared dead after the crash in heavy rain

The Tam Airlines Airbus-320 with 176 people on board reportedly skidded off a wet runway and across a road outside the Brazilian city's Congonhas airport before hitting the fuel station.

Flames shot into the sky and clouds of black smoke billowed out of the crash site in a built-up area of the city.

The Brazilian news agency Folha has reported a member of the rescue crew as telling the city's mayor that "we've got 200 dead there".

The plane travelled across a road at the height of rush hour, according to Jose Leonardi Mota, an airport authority spokesman.

Brazilian media reported that it had also crashed into a building or warehouse owned by Tam, and television pictures showed images of firefighters spraying water onto the building bearing a Tam sign.

"At the moment, we cannot determine the extent of possible injuries suffered by the planes occupants and crew members," Tam said in a statement.

The plane was flying to Sao Paulo from the southern Brazilian city of Porto Alegre, Mr Mota said.

The accident happened during heavy rain, and critics have warned for years that such an accident was possible because the airport's runway is too short for large planes when the runway is wet.

It is Brazil's second major air disaster in less than a year. In September 154 people were killed in a collision between a Gol airline Boeing 737 and an executive jet over the Amazon rainforest.

In 1996, a Tam airlines Fokker-100 skidded off the runway at Congonhas airport and down a street before erupting in a fireball. The crash killed all 96 people on board and three on the ground.


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