The Brazilian Air Force (FAB) has located this Saturday morning, September 30, the wreckage of the Boeing 737-800 of Brazilian airline Gol, which carried 155 people: 149 passenges and six flight crew.
The debris was found in the border between the states of Mato Grosso and Pará, in the north of Brazil, about 200 km (124 miles) from the municipality of Peixoto de Azevedo, in the the state of Mato Grosso.
According to the Infraero, the Brazilian aviation authority, the wreckage is in a place hard to reach since it is an Amazon area of dense forest. For the moment there is no indication that the plane caught fire or exploded. Rescue teams will have to reach the area by helicopter and then rappel to the fall scene.
The Gol plane disappeared after a mid-air collision with a Legacy jet, of the Embraer (Brazilian Aircraft Manufacturer). Although damaged the Embraer airplane was able to land in a mountainous area in the state of Pará.
For the president of Infraero, brigadier José Carlos Pereira, there is no explanationh for the accident: "Both planes are super modern and have an anticollision system that sounds an alarm to alert the pilot when there is any obstacle." According to Pereira, one of the planes, flew at 36,000 feet while the other was at 37,000 feet, which is absolutely normal for planes flying the same route.
"In principle, all that occurs in the planet is human failure, except for the natural accidents. But material failure might have occurred in this case,"said Pereira.
For colonel Ramón Bueno, chief of São Paulo state’s SRPV (Regional Service of Flight Protection) this might be Brazil’s worst plane accident ever. He also didn’t have a clue on the cause of the collision: "There was a grave error technical or operational," he said.
If all the 155 people aboard are confirmed dead this will be the worst plane accident ever in Brazil. Until now the worst one was that of Vasp’s Boeing 747, which crashed against a hill in Fortaleza, in the northeastern state of Ceará, in 1982. 137 people died in that accident.
Denise Abreu, director of Brazil’s Civilian Aviation National Agency (Anac) tried to reassure Brazilians over the risks of flying: "In aviation safety Brazil is considered top of the line. Passengers should keep their cool. This is just an episode, an isolated fact," she stated.
Gol’s Flight 1907 had left Manaus, the capital of Amazonas at 3:35 pm and was supposed to have a stop-over in Brasília before reaching its final destination, Rio de Janeiro. The plane never reached Brasília, where it was being expected at 6:12 pm. The last contact with the aircraft happened at 5 pm.
According to the Brazilian aviation authorities they will have three months to investigate and reach a conclusion on the causes of the accident. The deadline might be extended, however.