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September 30, 2006
Gol Jetliner Disappears Over Amazon
Officials: Jetliner disappears over Amazon
The Brazilian air force is searching the densely forested Amazon jungle for a Gol airlines jet that went missing with about 155 people aboard, Brazilian aviation authorities said. Officials said they were uncertain about an earlier report that the incident was caused by a collision with a private jet.
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (AP) -- The Brazilian air force continued searching Saturday morning in the densely forested Amazon region for a Gol airlines jet with about 155 people aboard that went missing Friday, Brazilian aviation authorities said.
But authorities said they were no longer certain the disappearance was caused by a collision with a private jet as they earlier maintained.
"During the afternoon there was another incident with a Legacy airplane, made by Embraer," federal aviation authorities said in a statement issued early Saturday morning. "It is impossible to confirm that there is a relation between the incident which caused the (Legacy) crew to perform an emergency landing in Cachimbo and the disappearance of the Gol airplane."
Brazilian airport authority Infraero President Jose Carlos Pereira said Gol flight 1907 left the jungle city of Manaus and disappeared. It had been scheduled to land in Brasilia before heading to Rio de Janeiro's Antonio Jobim International Airport.
Manaus is a major river city in the heart of the Amazon rainforest some 1,700 miles (2700 kilometers) northwest of Rio de Janeiro.
Pereira said five air force planes were searching for the missing Boeing 737 in a densely forested region and would continue to search through the night.
Late Friday evening Gol said in a statement there were 155 people aboard the jet, 149 passengers and six crew members.
Initially, authorities reported the Gol jet struck a Brazilian-made Legacy aircraft near the Serra do Cachimbo, region in Para state. The Legacy plane was able to land at the Cachimbo base in southern Para despite suffering damage.
The Embraer Legacy 600 is a Brazilian-made executive jet that carries up to 16 passengers.
The Estado news agency quoted Col. Ramon Bueno, head of region flight protection in Sao Paulo, as saying Legacy was piloted by an U.S. citizen, who had left from the airport in Sao Jose dos Campos, near Sao Paulo. The Legacy suffered damaged to its wing and tail.
He told the news agency a mid-air collision was "inexplicable."
"The two planes are very modern and have anti-collision systems, which sound an alarm to alert the plane to any obstacle," Buena told Estado.
The Brazilian Aviation agency said in a statement the plane disappear about 130 miles (207 kilometers) south of the city of Cachimbo in the remote south western region of Para state, some 2,000 kilometers (1,250 miles) northwest of Rio de Janeiro.
On Friday evening, Gol issued a brief statement confirming the plane's disappearance.
"GOL informs that flight 1907, that today left the Manaus airport at 15:35 (Brasilia time) this Friday, and was scheduled to arrive at the Brasilia airport at 18:12, has not had its landing confirmed. ... We are awaiting information from officials of the aviation authorities about the flight," the statement read.
Some 70 family members and friends of the flight's passengers had been moved to a warehouse owned by Gol at the Brasilia airport to await news.
Seven passengers were scheduled to disembark in Rio de Janeiro, where airport officials had put those waiting for the passengers in a separate room, said Wilson Fadul, a spokesman for the national airport authority.
The flight between Manaus and Rio is popular with foreign tourists but there was no immediate word on the nationalities of those aboard.
The Gol flight went missing in the same region where a Varig 737-300 crashed in 1989 with 54 people aboard with 46 survivors.
Bueno told Estado that if there were no survivors it could be the worst air accident ever in Brazil. The worst to date occurred in 1982 when a Vasp 747 crashed in the northeastern city of Fortaleza killing 137 people.
Posted by Wild Thing at September 30, 2006 12:55 AM
Comments
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