BRAZIL: Brazilian airline passenger plane with 155 people on board disappears over Amazon jungle - believed crashed

A Brazilian airline passenger plane with 155 people on board disappeared over the Amazon jungle on Friday (September 29, 2006) and was believed to have crashed, local officials and news reports said. The brand-new Boeing 737-800 operated by Brazilian low-cost carrier Gol disappeared after losing radar contact during a flight from the principal Amazon city of Manaus to the national capital, Brasilia, National Civil Aviation Agency Spokesperson Cosete. "We communicate that Gol flight 1907 with some 150 people aboard, that left Manaus at 14:30 (1830 GMT) local time destination Rio de Janeiro, disappeared," Castro said. "The flight was to make a stop in Brasilia at 18:10 (2110 GMT). The flight control of the Brazilian Air Force lost contact with the airplane at 16:48 when it over flew some 217km the south of the city of Caximbo, district of Sao Felix do Araguaia in the state of Para." The mayor of a remote town in the central state of Mato Grosso said the plane had crashed on a farm in Peixoto de Azevedo municipality. The report could not immediately be confirmed by other authorities. The head of Brazil's airports authority, Infraero, said the Gol aircraft collided with another smaller plane, Globo news agency reported. The smaller plane, an executive jet, was able to land in a town called Serra do Cachimbo even though it suffered wing damage, Globo reported. Cachimbo is deep in the jungle about midway between Manaus and Brasilia. At Brasilia and Rio de Janeiro airports, friends and relatives, many weeping, anxiously awaited news. "They (Gol) are being very well-mannered," said Carlos Malheiros who has a relative on the missing flight. "They don't want to alarm but what we're seeing on television is that this has already occurred. Now, we want information to see if they're searching, to see if they're taking steps to do something." Gol is a low-cost carrier that has expanded rapidly in recent years to become Brazil's number two airline and to offer flights to neighboring countries. With its orange and white colors and stylized casual uniforms based on U.S. no-thrills carriers, it is an instantly recognizable brand in Brazil and one of its most successful new businesses. Manaus is host to a number of foreign-owned manufacturing plants making motorcycles, computers and other goods in its duty free zone. It is also a base for tourism in the Amazon, the world's largest rain forest, and a headquarters for several environmental groups. Authorities said five air force planes were searching for the missing Gol jet. This is the first major crash involving Gol, which was founded in 2001. In the last major airline crash in Brazil, 33 people were killed when a plane belonging to regional carrier Rico Linhas Aereas crashed in the Amazon flying from Sao Paulo de Olivenca to Manaus on May 14, 2004.

ITN Source | September 30, 2006

Tags:. .zone. .manufacturing. .tourism. .motorcycles. .farm