Jet crashes into Sao Paulo homes
Pastor Dale Morgan
Jet crashes into Sao Paulo homes*
* Story Highlights
* The Learjet 35 slammed into two houses shortly after taking off
* The plane, owned by an air taxi company, was en route to Rio de
Janeiro
* Witnesses: Jet went down as it apparently tried to return to the
airport
* One home was destroyed and another was heavily damaged
SAO PAULO, Brazil (AP) -- An executive jet crashed into a heavily
populated neighborhood of Sao Paulo on Sunday, killing at least eight
people and leaving a pile of smoky rubble just months after the city
suffered the nation's deadliest air disaster.
A firefighter walks by the turbine of a small jet that crashed in Sao
Paulo, Brazil, Sunday.
The plane, a Learjet 35 belonging to a Brazilian air taxi company,
slammed into two houses shortly after taking off, said Lucia Ferreira, a
spokeswoman for airport authority Infraero.
The dead included four men, two women, a child and another person, Sao
Paulo's state security department said in a statement.
Authorities did not immediately say how many people were aboard the jet,
or how many of the dead were in the plane or on the ground.
Investigators were trying to determine the cause of the crash.
But Ferreira said there were no immediate indications that it was
related to the Brazilian air traffic chaos and woes including the July
17 crash of a Tam Linhas Aereas SA jetliner, which slammed into a
building in Sao Paulo, killing 199 people.
That crash happened at Sao Paulo's Congonhas airport, widely criticized
for having a short runway that makes landing tricky during rainy conditions.
The jet that crashed Sunday afternoon took off from the Campo de Marte
airport, used by executive jets and helicopters.
It was owned by Reali Taxi Aereo and was en route to Rio de Janeiro,
Ferreira said.
Witnesses told Brazilian media the plane plowed nose first into the
blue-collar neighborhood as it apparently tried to return to the airport
during cloudy and slightly rainy conditions.
One home was destroyed and another was heavily damaged. More than 60
firefighters were still combing through the debris hours later.