A Tragedy Foretold: Flight 3054 is pulling again the curtains on South America’s deadliest airplane crash that killed practically 200 folks.
In July 2007, amid an ongoing aviation disaster in Brazil, a TAM Airways airplane crashed right into a constructing and exploded after failing to land correctly. The accident, which many believed might have been prevented, was the results of a number of errors uncovered all through the investigation.
In A Tragedy Foretold: Flight 3054, which premiered on Netflix on April 23, a number of relations of the victims mirrored on the heartache they skilled after the tragedy.
“It’s extremely unhappy for us to relive what we went by, however I feel that it will be significant for us to inform this story, in order that persons are conscious and guarantee that security is at all times taken significantly,” Dario Scott, whose daughter Thaís died within the accident, mentioned.
“No cash on the earth can deliver again my daughter I misplaced,” he continued. “This is not about compensation. I do not need to lose my two kids who’re nonetheless right here at this time.”
So, what induced the TAM Airways airplane to crash? This is every little thing to know concerning the Flight 3054 accident — and the place the relations of the victims are at this time.
What occurred throughout Flight 3054?
On July 17, 2007, Flight 3054 was on its option to São Paulo from Porto Alegre when it did not land correctly. The plane overran the runway and crashed right into a TAM constructing and fuel station, which induced an enormous explosion.
Though pilot Gustavo Rocha defined within the docuseries that Congonhas Airport has at all times been a “large problem” to navigate, there have been initially three fundamental theories as to what induced the accident.
First, consultants thought the pilot might need tried to take off once more whereas touchdown. Second, they thought it was potential that the pilot tried to brake, however misplaced management of the airplane and veered off the runway.
The third speculation was that there might need been water accumulation on the runway from the rain. In truth, three aircrafts needed to abort touchdown the day earlier than, whereas eight reported the runway as slippery.
After additional investigation through the black field (which information the flight), the touchdown accident was decided to be brought on by an error with the thrust levers, that are just like a fuel pedal in a automobile. Every plane has two thrust levers, one for every of the airplane’s engines to hurry up or decelerate.
The plane had two pilots within the cockpit, reasonably than a co-pilot, and likewise had a “pinned reverser,” which meant just one could possibly be used, one thing not all that uncommon in aviation. Nonetheless, as defined within the docuseries, when a reverser is pinned, pilots ought to pull the thrust levers from climb to idle after which instantly transfer each levers to reverse, together with the pinned one.
However on Flight 3054, the pilot solely moved the lever with the practical reverser, whereas the opposite one stored accelerating.
Nonetheless, per the docuseries, there have been a number of components that contributed to the error, from the individuals who delayed getting the grooves of the runway mounted to the airplane producers who didn’t make the set up of a sound alarm obligatory.
How many individuals died throughout Flight 3054?
The aviation accident killed 199 folks: all 187 passengers and crew on board the flight, and 12 extra people on the bottom.
In line with The New York Occasions, Julio Redecker — the minority chief of the decrease home of the Brazilian Congress — was amongst these killed on the flight.
Whereas everybody on the flight tragically died, some who had been within the surrounding areas on the bottom survived the accident — and shared their story within the Netflix docuseries.
Among the many survivors was Wanderlei Silva, who mirrored on the “hero” he remembered who tried to avoid wasting his life, saying, “I’ve everlasting gratitude in direction of this individual.”
Who was held accountable for the Flight 3054 accident?
Following the accident, three Brazilian companies launched an investigation to find out the reason for the tragedy. The Middle for Investigation and Prevention of Aeronautical Accidents (CENIPA) concluded that no single particular person was at fault; reasonably, a mixture of human and operational errors led to the crash.
Whereas the thrust levers had been the ultimate straw, different contributing components included the shortage of rules prohibiting landings at Congonhas Airport with an inoperative thrust reverser, particularly underneath heavy rain circumstances.
Initially, 11 folks had been formally charged: 10 indicted by the Civil Police and one by the State Public Prosecutor’s Workplace. These included staff of Infraero (the airport authority), the Nationwide Civil Aviation Company (Anac) and TAM Airways. Finally, the case didn’t advance in state courtroom.
When the case was transferred to the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Workplace, prices had been filed towards three people: TAM’s director of flight security, Marco Aurélio dos Santos de Miranda e Castro, the corporate’s vice chairman of operations, Alberto Fajerman, and Anac director Denise Abreu.
In 2015, all three had been acquitted.
What was Brazil’s aviation blackout?
As defined within the docuseries, there was “already a disaster taking place within the aviation sector” practically 10 months earlier than the Flight 3054 accident.
On the time of the Flight 3054 accident, there have been already two investigations in progress over the “aviation blackout” — a disaster in Brazil’s flight sector between 2006 and 2007 that included huge delays, cancellations and different airport chaos.
With Brazil’s financial system doing exceptionally nicely, passenger numbers had been rising, regardless of not having adequate infrastructure to maintain up with the elevated quantity. There was already a scarcity of funding in airport infrastructure and air visitors management, in addition to poor working circumstances for air visitors controllers, which led to strikes and work-to-rule protests.
The disaster heightened in September 2006, after the Gol Flight 1907 accident that killed all passengers and crew onboard. Within the aftermath, many air visitors controllers had been suspended for investigation.
What occurred within the aftermath of the Flight 3054 accident?
A number of security measures had been carried out to make sure there can be constructive modifications following the tragic accident. Along with establishing particular coaching minimums devoted to braking system failures, the Congonhas Airport was additionally expanded.
Most of the members of the family additionally united to kind the Affiliation of Family members and Mates of the Victims of TAM Flight JJ3054, in any other case generally known as AFAVITAM, which aimed to hunt justice for the victims and their family members.
5 years later, a memorial was constructed to honor the victims in the identical place because the crash, surrounding a mulberry tree that survived the implosion of the constructing.
A number of the households of the victims requested that the memorial be constructed across the tree, “to indicate that life can … keep it up,” Scott mentioned.
The place are the victims’ households now?
Many relations of the victims had been featured all through the docuseries, sharing emotional accounts of the times and years following the tragedy.
Simone Felizardo, whose brother Paulo died within the accident, moved to Buenos Aires, Argentina, to flee what she known as “the environment of demise.”
“I wanted to be reborn,” she added.
Ildercler Ponce De Leão, who misplaced his spouse Jamille and son Levy, is concentrated on elevating his two daughters. “God gave me this double honor. He put a smile on my face once more,” he mentioned.
Roberto Gomes, whose brother Mário died, mentioned the compensation he obtained did not change his household’s monetary scenario — and that he nonetheless lives the “standard life.”
Eduardo Sato, who was 23 years outdated when he misplaced his brother Rogério within the accident, mirrored on how he “matured,” saying, “Not even I knew how a lot I might be taught and endure.”
Though Scott shared that he had moved ahead, he added that “there are households who’re nonetheless making an attempt to get well from this tragedy.”
AFAVITAM additionally nonetheless exists at this time, and members collect yearly to pay tribute to the victims, whereas additionally ensuring the memorial house is stored in good situation.
“If the memorial is deteriorating at this time, if it is poorly maintained, this can be a signal that we’re already beginning to overlook,” the previous lawyer basic of the general public ministry of the state of São Paulo Mário Luiz Sarrubbo mentioned.
