Pilots exchanged warnings of slick runway days before crash

By Ana Maria Pomi Jul 18, 2007, 18:53 GMT

Sao Paulo - Days before a plane crash that claimed the lives of an estimated 200 people at a Sao Paulo airport Tuesday night, pilots and technicians had exchanged warnings: 'the runway is as smooth as soap.'

A Brazilian TAM Airbus A320 skidded off the main runway at Congonhas airport in Sao Paulo, across one of the busiest highways in the metropolis and rammed a petrol station and another building, setting off a huge blaze.

The pilot had apparently been unable to brake the plane enough, coming in from Porto Alegre.

Uebio Jose da Silva, president of the National Federation of Air Transport Workers, said the plane skidded for a reason - one that had been causing problems for other machines as well, albeit without major consequences.

'The runway is as smooth as soap,' said Silva, summing up the complaints of the pilots he represents.

Pilots and air traffic controllers had already considered the main runway at the Congonhas, the busiest airport in Brazil, as 'dangerous.'

On Monday, 24 hours before the worst tragedy in the history of Brazilian aviation, they exchanged messages warning about the runway's condition.

'Flight 1277, just to report that the runway is very slippery,' one pilot warned the control tower.

'Thanks for the information,' the answer came back.

In another exchange that day, the controller asked: 'Varig 2422 confirms information on the runway?'

'The runway remains very slippery 2422. It is giving us work,' the pilot said.

The main runway at Congonhas had been resurfaced recently and only re-opened to air traffic on June 29.

But while the work had been finished on schedule, the runway still lacked slashes, or grooves, meant to facilitate drainage on rainy days and increase the grip of planes at landing to avoid skidding, the president of state airport operator Infraero, Jose Carlos Pereira, had admitted at the opening.

The first part of the work was concluded in May, and the rest, including the grooving, was scheduled to be undertaken in August.

Several smaller-scale accidents had happened before and after the repairs at Congonhas airport, according reports on the website of television channel Rede Globo.

In January 2003, an private executive plane skidded off the runway and knocked over a fast food stall on the street. In March 2006, an craft operated by the airline BRA also failed to break on the wet runway, skidded onto the grass and finally stopped only three metres away from the nearby highway.

On that occasion, BRA president Humberto Folegatti criticized the runway at Congonhas.

'It has been said for a while that Congonhas has problems,' he said. 'If the runway does not have a component (grooving) that helps stop the plane, there can be trouble.'

In August 2006, a flight operated by the airline Gol with 122 passengers on board also skidded. The pilot could not stop and the machine ran onto another runway, although no one was injured.

On Monday, a plane operated by the airline Pantanal stopped on the grass as it attempted to land on the main runway.

Congonhas airport, in southern Sao Paulo, is the busiest in Brazil. It re-opened on Wednesday morning, although authorities said only an auxiliary runway would be open and that it was operating with restrictions as to the size of planes.