Safety at airport

Brazil’s biggest airlines on Tuesday, Aug. 28, instructed their pilots to avoid landing at Rio de Janeiro’s Santos Dumont domestic airport during rainy weather. This is a direct result last month’s accident in Sao Paolo, where a jetliner crashed while landing under wet conditions, killing 187 passengers and crew plus 12 people on the ground.

The three airlines TAM Linhas Aereas SA, Gol Linhas Aereas Inteligentes SA, and VRG Linhas Aereas SA (Varig) had received government advisories that the runway at Rio’s domestic airport gets slippery in rainy weather. Inbound flights will be rerouted for landing at the Rio international airport instead.

On July 17, a TAM Airbus A320 tried to land in Sao Paolo’s Congonhas Airport during a heavy downpour. The aircraft somehow skidded off and overshot the runway, crossed a multilane highway, and then crashed into a building and burst into flames. Some 199 people died in the accident, including 12 people on the ground. This was Brazil’s worst aviation disaster, which followed another accident in late 2006 when a passenger plan collided with a private jet, killing over 150 people.

Last month’s disaster underscored the inadequacy of the runways at Congonhas Airport, which are said to be too short to handle commercial jets. The design of the runways is more suitable for short commuter flights that serve the country’s domestic market.

Brazil’s airlines have already instructed their pilots that they should not land at Congonhas Airport at any time without activating their thrust reversers. Planes have long been under instructions not to land at the Santos Dumont airport if the thrust reversers are not activated. Rio de Janeiro’s Santos Dumont airport is also short.

In last month’s crash, the thrust reversers in the TAM Airbus were not activated at the time it landed. Thrust reversers are used to slow down the jet aircraft immediately after touching down, but there are instances when they are not activated.

The runways on the Congonhas Airport were being resurfaced at the time of the crash, for the cutting of grooves that would drain out rainwater off the pavement, but the project had not yet been completed.

Just over a week ago, the main runway at Sao Paolo International Airport was shut down for two months of repairs to improve safety. Grooves will also be cut into the repaved runway to prevent water from building up on the runway surface and making it slippery. The Brazilian government is under pressure to improve safety conditions in airports after the July crash.