| Brazilian TAM Airbus 320 crashes into building |
A Brazilian passenger jet crashed and burst into flames Tuesday after skidding off a runway and barreling across a busy highway, officials said. All 176 people on board were feared dead in what would be Brazil’s deadliest air disaster, and at least 15 were killed on the ground.
The death toll officially stood at 40 after the crash of the Airbus-320 owned by TAM airlines, but that number was expected to rise sharply as rescue workers, forensic experts and doctors scoured the wreckage in South America’s largest city.
The crash - Brazil’s second major disaster in less than a year - happened in a driving rain on a runway at Congonhas airport that had been criticized in the past for being too short. The TAM Airlines jet slammed into a gas station and a building owned by the airline, said Jose Leonardi Mota, a spokesman with airport authority Infraero.
An official said early Wednesday that 25 charred bodies had been recovered from what was left of the plane and that 15 people who were on the ground either died at the scene or in hospitals.
TAM Linhas Aereas Flight 3054 was en route to Sao Paulo from the southern Brazilian city of Porto Alegre. TAM Airlines said there were 176 people on board, 170 passengers and 6 crew members. A Brazilian congressman was among those on the flight, his aide said.
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