Brazil descended again into air chaos on Wednesday after the nation’s number-one airline cancelled dozens of flights to and from the country’s busiest airport, causing a ripple effect nationwide that stranded thousands and sent tempers flaring.
The cancellations by TAM Linhas Aereas SA came after the government announced late on Tuesday it was temporarily halting ticket purchases for flights at São Paulo’s Congonhas airport, where a TAM jet crashed last week, killing 199 people.
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has sacked the minister of defence, whose ministry is in charge of air traffic and safety, a presidential spokesperson said on Wednesday. Brazilian media reported that Waldir Pires would be replaced by former Supreme Court president Nelson Jobim.
Pires has come under withering criticism for nearly a year of periodic air-travel havoc that intensified after the TAM crash. The air force oversees Brazil’s air-traffic-control system.
There were severe delays and waves of cancellations across Brazil on Wednesday, a day after 590 flights were delayed and 298 cancelled, according to Infraero, the country’s airport-infrastructure authority.
The chaos was aggravated when TAM cancelled or diverted 90 flights at Congonhas on Tuesday, citing safety concerns over heavy rain and the airport’s runway.
The rain continued on Wednesday, leading the airline initially to cancel 36 flights from Congonhas and divert another 25 domestic flights to São Paulo’s international airport. TAM said in a statement.
Many passengers said they would wait out delays lasting days, but others gave up.
“This is a disgrace,” said Marcelo Viera, a chemical-plant inspector who showed up five hours early for his flight from São Paulo to the north-eastern city of Salvador and got stuck at the end of a line of 300 people. Brazil’s air-safety system “has been neglected for years, and it’s going to take years to fix”.
Brazil’s Aviation Authority announced the temporary suspension of all ticket sales for flights to Congonhas in an effort to reduce the number of delays and cancellations.
The measure was adopted “to ensure that those who have already purchased their tickets will be able to embark”, the authority’s president, Milton Zuanazzi, said at a news conference. “Sales will only resume once the situation at Congonhas returns to normal.”
The delays also prompted TAM’s main Brazilian competitor, Gol Linhas Aereas Inteligentes SA, to recommend that its clients postpone flying until Monday. “In this period, the company hopes to re-establish the normal flux of air traffic,” the company said.
Accident investigation
Officials have closed the 1 939m main runway at Congonhas, short by modern standards, amid claims it is dangerous when wet. Investigators probing the July 17 crash need to “complete their inspection [of the runway] to see if it played any role in the disaster”, Infraero spokesperson Ana Carla Mafra said.
Brigadier General Jorge Kersul, who heads the air force’s air-accident investigation centre, said earlier the runway was one of the factors being investigated. But another Infraero spokesperson, Leonardo Mota Neto, insisted it was safe, saying: “There is no way the runway can be blamed for the accident.”
TAM shares fell 1% on Wednesday morning on Brazil’s Bovespa stock exchange, adding to a steep drop since the crash. But the company’s chief financial officer, Libano Barroso, downplayed the financial effects of the accident and the subsequent air chaos during a conference call with investors. Gol shares were off 1,7%, while the Bovespa’s main index rose slightly.
Barroso said that the measure of airplane occupancy, or load factor, of the company’s domestic and international flights stood at 75%.
Landing at Congonhas, TAM Flight 3054 sped down the runway instead of slowing down, then jumped a highway and hit a fuel station and an air-cargo building, killing 187 people aboard and 12 on the ground. The airline said one of the Airbus 320’s two thrust reversers was deactivated, although it said that was allowed under government safety regulations.
Kersul said that the plane landed normally but was unable to slow down and crashed at 175km/h.
Relatives and friends of the victims gathered at Congonhas on Tuesday evening for a religious ceremony to honour the dead at the precise moment that the plane raced off the runway and slammed into the fuel station and air-cargo building.
“She died doing what she liked most,” Jose Roberto Silva, said of his daughter Madalena, a TAM flight attendant.
Churches in the southern cities of Porto Alegre and Curitiba — the home towns of many of the dead — also held memorial Masses. — Sapa-AP