September 30, 2006
HOW YA GONNA GET AMERICANS TO FLY BRAZILIAN?:
Search planes find wreckage of Brazilian passenger airliner (CNN, 9/30/06)
Search planes scouring the dense Amazon rainforest in Brazil have found the wreckage of the Boeing 737-800 airliner that disappeared with at least 145 people on board, a Gol Airlines spokesman said Saturday. [...]Posted by Orrin Judd at September 30, 2006 12:00 AMThe plane was heading from Manaus to Brasilia, and was set to land at 6:12 p.m. before going on to Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paolo, a spokesman for Brazilian civil aviation said. [...]
Federal aviation officials on Saturday backed away from local media reports that the plane had collided with a smaller corporate jet, saying it was impossible to confirm, AP reported. [...]
Gol is the fastest-growing airline in South America and was launched in January 2001 as the first low-fare airline in Brazil.
If they hand't been flying that over-complicated (and overregulated) Boeing jet that only pallid First Worlders can truly understand, but some Aeroflot reject or Embraer puddle jumper, those people would be alive today.
(And when was the last time anyone hijacked a Brazilian jet, anyhow? Shouldn't that statue of Jesus in Rio be removed, because it might offend Muslim sensitivities, before someone flies a plane into it?)
Posted by: Raoul Ortega at September 30, 2006 1:10 PMOr an Airbus, Raoul. I vaguely remember reading that an Airbus is supposed to be a real third world aircraft!
Posted by: wf at September 30, 2006 1:18 PMWhoa. What a notion. Flying a bunch of pilgrims into that huge statue of Christ over looking Rio. What a publicity stunt that would be. BTW great shots of it on CSI Miami last week.
Posted by: erp at September 30, 2006 2:42 PMI recently flew a Brazilian airline, TAM, to Sao Paulo and Rio and am pleased to report that the comfort of the plane, quality of service, etc. were all far superior to American and United Airlines. The Brazilian airlines (and restaurants and hotels, too) are particularly kid-friendly.
Posted by: Foos at September 30, 2006 9:53 PMVarig was always good to me - and on my last trip (in 2002), when our return flight was cancelled, they flew us from Rio to Sao Paulo, put us up at a great hotel, gave us a great dinner (at 11:00 PM), and then we flew over the rain forest the next day (back to Miami). After 4 night flights, I finally got a photo of the Amazon (and one of Cuba).
I wondered if OJ would rise to this story. But the part about the collision will be easy to confirm, because the other jet landed safely at a Brazilian AFB.
Posted by: jim hamlen at September 30, 2006 10:26 PMI forgot to mention that the 737 in question was delivered to GOL on 9/12 and had only 200 hours of service. If something went wrong with the plane (if the crash wasn't due to a collision), it is probably not the airline's fault.
Posted by: jim hamlen at September 30, 2006 11:05 PMIt's Brazil.
Posted by: oj at October 1, 2006 9:50 AM