Jet Crash in Brazil Neighborhood Kills 98

A twin-engine commuter jet crashed in the densely populated outskirts of Sao Paulo, Brazil, on Thursday, killing at least 98 people, engulfing a neighborhood in flames and renewing worries about air safety in Latin America.

The crash--the latest of a number of air disasters in this region--occurred about 8:25 on a sunny morning, moments after the Dutch-made Fokker-100 operated by TAM, a Brazilian airline, took off from Congonhas Airport on a 45-minute flight to Rio de Janeiro.

The plane veered suddenly to the right, then plummeted into Vila Santa Catarina, a working-class community about a mile from the airport on the periphery of South America’s most populous city.

The plane smashed through 13 stores and houses, spreading a river of blazing fuel in its wake, witnesses said.

“It was total madness,” said Dona Tuca, a distraught neighbor interviewed at the scene. “Many people almost died in the flames. My neighbor’s daughter was burned to death.”

The six crew members and 90 passengers died, authorities said. The official toll had reached 98 Thursday as rescue workers picked through a hellish landscape of rubble and incinerated bodies.

At least 13 people were injured, and there were reports that more people were killed on the ground. The casualties ranged from a group of bankers on the plane to working-class people whose houses erupted in flames around them.

The plane narrowly missed a school attended by 2,400 students before crashing into the residential street. Because the incident occurred during the morning rush, many people in the area had already left for work.

The leader of a Brazilian pilots association declared at a news conference Thursday that his group had criticized the airline for allegedly unsafe practices.

“We have made several allegations,” said Pedro Azambuja, president of the National Federation of Pilots and Mechanics. “Although it spends a lot on marketing, TAM is a champion in irregularities. It forces employees to work excessive hours, and it violates labor legislation with its pilots.”

There was no comment from the airline, described by officials and experts as having a good safety record. Civil aviation investigators hope to determine the cause of the crash within three months.

Meantime, a troubling spate of accidents throughout Latin America has intensified concerns among pilots and international air safety watchdogs that many airports here operate on the edge of catastrophe.

Although Brazil has one of the region’s best safety records, it suffers from many of the problems that make the area one of the world’s most dangerous places to fly.

Latin America has eight times more accidents than the United States and Canada, says the Flight Safety Foundation, a nonprofit monitoring organization funded by the airline industry and based in Arlington, Va.

“Unfortunately, Latin America ranks right up there at the top,” foundation President Stuart Matthews said in a telephone interview. “It is not any better than Africa, China or the former Soviet Union.”

A week ago, a cargo plane plunged into the city of Manta in Ecuador, killing 14 people.

Three weeks earlier, 70 people died aboard an Aeroperu 757-200 that crashed into the ocean near Lima after apparent technical problems on the plane and ground left the pilot flying blind in the fog.

Other major crashes in the Dominican Republic, Paraguay and Peru this year killed 336 people.

The region suffers from a convergence of dangerous factors, some historic and others that have developed more recently.

The terrain and weather tend to be rugged. Radar, runways and other infrastructure are notoriously poor, and government regulatory agencies often lack money and aggressiveness. Air traffic controllers and pilots are often underpaid, overworked and inadequately trained.

In nations such as Peru and Colombia, guerrilla armies and terrorists contribute to risk. And throughout the region, air traffic has expanded rapidly--tripling in some cases--as economies grow and governments open markets to fledgling private carriers.

Alarmed by this trend, aviation authorities in the United States have taken a hard-line approach intended to pressure Latin American nations to improve performance.

The Clinton administration engaged Venezuela in a diplomatic confrontation in August: The Federal Aviation Administration threatened to block U.S.-bound flights until Venezuela corrected grave deficiencies in training, inspection and maintenance.

Venezuelan authorities retaliated by canceling a few flights by U.S. carriers but then agreed on a plan to improve their safety system.

The threat of being shut out of the U.S. market has pressured other nations in Latin America to follow suit, Matthews said.

Although Brazil has a large, comparatively well-regarded airline industry, safety flaws there were dramatized by the crash of a private jet in March that killed the members of a popular music group.

The pilot of the jet, which crashed into a mountain, lacked required training, and air traffic controllers failed to warn him that he was off course, according to news accounts.

Thursday’s crash in Sao Paulo occurred without warning on a day with good visibility, authorities said.

The commuter flight out of one of Brazil’s busiest airports carried many business travelers, including executives of numerous financial institutions.

It was unclear whether the bankers were traveling together to an event or as part of a delegation. Three U.S. citizens were also on board, according to press reports.

Paula Gobbi of The Times’ Rio de Janeiro Bureau contributed to this report.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

A Deadly Year

Dates and circumstances of some air crashes in Latin America this year:

FEBRUARY

4: A Colombian Lineas Aereas del Caribe DC-8 cargo plane crashes into homes near Paraguay’s capital, Asuncion; 24 people, most of them children, are killed.

29: A Boeing 737 belonging to Faucett Airlines, a Peruvian carrier, crashes. All 123 people aboard are killed. Airport and Faucett officials say the plane had been cleared for landing and crashed on a mountain five minutes before it was due to touch down at the airport in Arequipa.

****

MARCH

2: A chartered Brazilian Lear jet carrying the music group Mamonas Assassinas crashes outside Sao Paulo. All on aboard are killed: five members of the band, two assistants, the pilot and co-pilot.

****

OCTOBER

2: An Aeroperu Boeing 757-200 crashes off the Pacific Coast north of Lima, killing all 70 passengers and crew on board.

23: An Argentine Air Force Boeing 707 cargo plane crashes while trying to make an emergency landing, killing two crew members and seriously injuring six.

31: A Brazilian Fokker 100 jetliner en route to Rio de Janiero crashes into a residential neighborhood in Sao Paulo shortly after takeoff, igniting a river of fire that engulfs apartments, homes and cars. Preliminary reports are that all 89 passengers and six members of the TAM airline crew are dead and at least three on the ground. The toll is expected to rise.

Sources: Times staff and wire reports

Researched by PAUL SINGLETON / Los Angeles Times