One day after Brazil's president insisted that air safety met international standards despite a devastating plane crash, an air traffic control outage forced 5 flights to turn back to Sao Paulo, officials said Saturday.
The flights, which were headed to the United States from Brazil, returned to Sao Paulo's Guarulhos International Airport while the Amazon region's Manaus center went down for several hours early Saturday.
"There were problems in Cindacta 4 of Manaus and 5 flights had to turn back," said an official with national airport administrator Infraero, referring to the district air traffic control center in northern Brazil.
One American Airlines flight was also forced to make a 3 hour stop in Manaus before proceeding to Dallas.
The problem came 4 days after a Tam Airlines flight from Porto Alegre crashed upon landing at Sao Paulo's Congonhas airport, killing all 187 aboard and an undetermined number of people on the ground.
It was Brazil's second major crash in a year. In September 2006 a private jet and a GOL airliner collided over the Amazon. All 154 people aboard the GOL flight died, while the occupants of the smaller plane escaped unharmed.
Under criticism for the accidents, on Friday President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva insisted Brazil's air safety met international standards and dismissed suggestions that top aviation officials should be fired.
"The level of safety of our airways system is compatible with all international norms," he said.
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