Data Released to Suggest Error Caused TAM Crash

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (AP) -- Moments before their jetliner skidded off a runway and exploded as it slammed into a building, pilots of TAM Airlines Flight 3054 screamed "slow down!" "turn, turn, turn" and "Oh my God!"

The screams and other dialogue contained in flight recorder transcripts made public Wednesday suggest that the accident at Sao Paulo's Congonhas airport that killed 199 may have been caused by mechanical failure or pilot error.

The transcript details take some heat off the Brazilian government, blamed for failing to improve the airport's runway, which pilots worldwide liken to landing on an aircraft carrier.

According to the flight recorder transcripts read before a congressional commission investigating air safety in Brazil, the pilots were unable to activate the spoilers -- aerodynamic brakes on the Airbus A320's wings -- as they touched down on the short, rain-slicked runway.

"Only one reverser. Spoiler nothing," 53-year-old pilot Henrique Stephanini Di Sacco says in the transcript, giving the first indication that something is wrong.

"Look at that. Slow down, slow down," says co-pilot Kleyber Lima, 54. Di Sacco replies: "I can't. I can't. Oh my God! Oh my God!"

Lima's last words are: "Go! Go! Turn! Turn! Turn!"

The recording ends with screams and a woman's voice, followed by an explosion.

The commission did not review the data recorder information publicly, but its contents, which were leaked, appeared on the Web sites of all major Brazilian dailies and were posted on the Web site of the Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of Congress.

The commission's president, Rep. Marco Maia, said he believes mechanical failure was behind the crash.

"From what we have determined, we can confirm that the machine failed," Maia told reporters in Brasilia. But he added that investigators must still "thoroughly examine all the possibilities."

The July 17 crash killed all 187 aboard the jetliner and 12 people on the ground in Brazil's deadliest air disaster.

The Folha de S. Paulo newspaper reported that according to the flight data recorder, one of the plane's throttles was in the wrong position as it touched down, causing it to speed up instead of slow down.

But putting the throttle in the wrong position would have only complicated an already challenging landing for the pilots. TAM previously acknowledged that one of the jet's two thrust reversers, used to slow planes during landings, was inoperative. And speculation also has focused on the urban airport's runway, which is so short that international pilots are warned to abort landings if they make any errors while touching down.

J.A. Donoghue, editor in chief of AeroSafety World, criticized the government's public probe of the accident.

"The accident investigation process is not going along according to international standard practices. Holding an accident investigation in public is usually not the way it's done," Donoghue said. "It's usually done in a quiet, academic way, as quickly as possible but also taking time to get a complete picture."

TAM's press office declined to comment on the crash until the investigation is finished. Airbus spokeswoman Barbara Kracht said the aircraft manufacturer also could not comment on the probe, citing international aviation rules.

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's administration has been widely criticized for failing to do more to address aviation problems since last September, when a Gol jetliner went down in the Amazon last September, killing 154 people. The crash touched off months of flight delays, cancellations and work stoppages.

Wednesday's revelations "will probably take the pressure off the government a bit, but the demand to improve the country's airport infrastructure will not go away. There's no return from that," said Alexandre Barros, a political risk consultant for the Early Warning Institute in Brasilia.

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