Brazil Air disaster

From AP-

SAO PAULO, BRAZIL - A Gol airlines jet that was missing with 155 people was discovered Saturday, crashed in the Amazon jungle region. The president of Brazil's airport authority, Jose Carlos Pereira, said air force search planes found the downed jetliner in the state of Mato Grosso.

"At this moment there is no way of telling if there are any survivors," said Denise Abreu one of the directors of the Brazilian Aviation Agency.

She said the plane crashed near the Jarina ranch, 1,090 miles northwest of Sao Paulo.

Gol airlines Flight 1907 vanished Friday after leaving the jungle city of Manaus en route for Brazilia and Rio de Janeiro.

The flight between Manaus and Rio is popular with foreign tourists but there was no immediate word on the nationalities of those aboard.

The worst previous air accident in Brazil occurred in 1982 when a Vasp 747 crashed in the northeastern city of Fortaleza, killing 137 people.

The cause of the crash was unclear. Officials earlier backed away from Friday's report that the jetliner might have collided with a Legacy executive jet before disappearing.

"It is impossible to confirm that there is a relation between the incident which caused the (Legacy) crew to perform an emergency landing in Cachimbo and the disappearance of the Gol airplane."

Manaus is a major river city in the heart of the Amazon rain forest some 1,700 miles northwest of Rio de Janeiro.

Gol said in a statement late Friday that 149 passengers and six crew members were aboard the plane.

Statistically travelling by air is one of the safest forms of transport. Unfortunately if one is in an air accident, the odds of survival aren't so good. Lets pray there are survivors from this crash.

Even with all the technology planes and ATC have, major mid-air collisions still occur on at least a one or two time a decade basis. Since 1960 there have been the following-

1960 New York Air Disaster
Piedmont Airlines Flight 22 in 1967
Allegheny Airlines Flight 853 in 1969
All Nippon Airways Flight 58 in 1971
1976 Zagreb mid-air collision
PSA Flight 182 in 1978
Aeroméxico Flight 498 in 1986
Saudia Flight 763 in 1996
Bashkirian Airlines Flight 2937 in 2002

The survival statistics in these crashes isn't good. Only two survivor from all of them, The Japanese Self Defense Force pilot and his instructor involved in the the All Nippon disaster.

There was a near mid-air over New York in the 1960's. One plane had to take dramatic action and lost control which resulted in the aircraft crashing.

Then the worst collision between two planes ironically took place on the ground. The 1977 Tenerife disaster.

It may be some time before we know if this or another cause was the cause of the Gol airlines crash.

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