2 Killed on Ground as 39 Survive Crash
An airliner with 39 people aboard crashed after a failed takeoff attempt today and smashed onto a highway, killing a woman and her young son in a truck and injuring 20 people on the plane.
Most of the 36 passengers and three crew members suffered only minor injuries.
The Fokker twin-engine turboprop, which belonged to TAM Regional Airlines, crashed at 9:40 a.m. as it tried to land in the southeastern city of Bauru, 220 miles from Sao Paulo, TAM spokesman Luiz Carlos Franco said.
The plane failed to gain altitude, said Maria Dalva, head of the news department of Bauru’s Auri Verde radio station.
“As the plane came in for an emergency landing on an empty plot of land near the airport it smashed into a station wagon, killing a 29-year-old woman and her 4-year-old-son,” said Dr. Cesar Carvalho, director of the Bauru Municipal Hospital.
The plane also hit and damaged two unoccupied houses. Its wings and engines burst into flames but the fuselage remained intact, Dalva said. About 30 firemen and policemen quickly extinguished the flames.
Most of the passengers and crew members walked away from the accident and only a few had to be carried on stretchers, she said.
The pilot was in the hospital’s intensive care unit with serious injuries and the co-pilot had a fractured spine, Carvalh said.
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