40 Survivors Found in Jet Jungle Crash

Brazil’s Air Ministry said today a Varig Airlines jetliner missing in the Amazon rain forest since Sunday night has been found on a farm and that 40 of the 54 people aboard survived a crash landing.

An air ministry spokesman in Brasilia said the plane was found 180 miles west of the town of Sao Felix do Araguaia in the state of Mato Grosso.

A Varig spokeswoman also said the plane had been found and that the information came from an amateur radio operator and rescue planes.

The plane took off from the Amazon town of Maraba at 5:25 p.m. Sunday bound for Belem, 270 miles to the north.

But the plane’s navigational equipment failed and it strayed off course.

The plane crash-landed about 420 miles southwest of Maraba, in the general area of the Xingu Indian park.

Survivor Walks to Farm

Varig President Helio Smidt said on television that a survivor had walked to a farm to get help.

Smidt, talking to reporters at Belem airport where he has been since the plane disappeared, said news of the emergency landing had been sent by radio from the farm.

Pilot Cesar Augusto Padula Garcez had said in his last contact that he would try to make an emergency landing in a jungle clearing he had seen.

Varig, Brazil’s main privately owned air carrier, sent out search planes after the plane disappeared and Air Force planes joined the search Monday.

The Varig spokeswoman said a number of ranchers had joined in the search with their own planes, in addition to about 10 aircraft belonging to the airline, the armed forces and Brazil’s national environmental institute.

SOS Signals Heard

Varig officials said several rescue planes had picked up SOS radio signals while searching for the airliner. A pilot for another airline, VASP, said he heard a barely audible distress call from the jungle area where the plane disappeared.

It was earlier reported that one of the search planes had also disappeared, but the plane showed up later and aided in the search efforts.

It was not known whether any foreigners were aboard the flight. The plane disappeared from radar screens between Maraba and Belem, in an area of dense rain forest and dozens of tributaries to the world’s largest river system in water volume.

No Problems Noted

Brazilian singer and composer Morais Moreira, who was aboard the plane during its leg from Brasilia to Imperatriz, said the airplane did not appear to have had any mechanical problems.

The plane’s route went from Sao Paulo to Uberaba, Uberlandia, Goiania, Brasilia, Imperatriz, Maraba and Belem.

On March 21 a Transbrasil cargo plane crashed in a populated zone of Sao Paulo as it approached Garulhos airport, killing 21 people, injuring more than 200 others and destroying 80 homes.