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World Insurance Report

Liability, awards and settlements

18.11, Brazilian air crash, investigation

Brazil: a 16-month investigation into the country’s worst airline accident that killed 199 people placed most of the blame on government agencies for failing to ensure runway safety and could lead to criminal charges against officials. The report by the Sao Paulo Institute of Criminology into the July 2007 accident at Sao Paulo’s Congonhas airport was to be delivered to state prosecutors. All 187 people on board and 12 people on the ground died when the TAM Linhas Aereas Airbus A320 skidded in heavy rain off a surface that had been repaved the previous month. Officials had tried to ban large jets from landing there but were unsuccessful. The crash highlighted persistent safety concerns about the short, slick runways at Sao Paulo’s ageing domestic airport, which sits in the middle of South America’s largest city. The new surface had not been grooved to drain rainwater, prompting criticism that the airport was reopened prematurely because it is so important to Brazil’s economy. The report, details of which were published a day earlier on Brazilian newspaper internet sites, blamed Infraero, the government body responsible for airport infrastructure, for failing to ensure adequate drainage on the runway. It also blamed the National Civil Aviation Agency for not setting stricter rules for aircraft landing in the rain. The botched landing was partly due to the thrusters being on opposite settings, which the report said was due to pilot error and lack of training by TAM. According to local media, Brazil’s public prosecution office was considering charges against 10 officials.

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