Brasilian GOL 737 missing

GOL airlines 737 with roughly 140 pax on board is missing in Brasil,
says BBC news.

GOL and brasilian governments have confirmed the plane is missing.

It is thought it collided with a small aircraft.

Press Release on GOL Flight 1907
Friday September 29, 11:41 pm ET

SAO PAOLO, Brazil, Sept. 29 /PRNewswire/ -- GOL informs that Flight
1907, that departed from the Manaus airport this Friday at 15:35 h
(Brasilia time), and had an estimated arrival time at the Brasilia
airport of 18:12 h does not at this moment have its landing confirmed.
The last contact with the aircraft occurred at 17:00 h. The aircraft, a
Boeing 737-800, was received new from the manufacturer on September 12
and had only 200 flight hours.

The flight departed with 149 passengers and 6 flight crew.

GOL is awaiting official information from the aeronautical authorities
on the flight. GOL will disclose more information as soon as it becomes available.

The Company is committed to maintaining transparency with the families,
the press and the public in general.

Family of passengers may use the following toll-free telephone number to
obtain additional information:
0800-2800749.

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world...rtner=homepage


nobody wrote:
Press Release on GOL Flight 1907
Friday September 29, 11:41 pm ET

SAO PAOLO, Brazil, Sept. 29 /PRNewswire/ -- GOL informs that Flight
1907, that departed from the Manaus airport this Friday at 15:35 h
(Brasilia time), and had an estimated arrival time at the Brasilia
airport of 18:12 h does not at this moment have its landing confirmed.
The last contact with the aircraft occurred at 17:00 h. The aircraft, a
Boeing 737-800, was received new from the manufacturer on September 12
and had only 200 flight hours.

The flight departed with 149 passengers and 6 flight crew.

GOL is awaiting official information from the aeronautical authorities
on the flight. GOL will disclose more information as soon as it becomes available.

The Company is committed to maintaining transparency with the families,
the press and the public in general.

Family of passengers may use the following toll-free telephone number to
obtain additional information:
0800-2800749.

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Hash: SHA1


AP has some good information on this now. Appears they may have
had a MAC with an Embraer Legacy on its inaugural flight to the US.


Survivors Unlikely in Brazilian Crash
Sep 30, 2:19 PM (ET)

By STAN LEHMAN

SAO PAULO, BRAZIL (AP) - Brazilian air force pilots spotted the
wreckage of a jetliner that crashed deep in the Amazon jungle, and an
aviation official said Saturday it was unlikely any of the 155 people
aboard had survived.

The president of Brazil's airport authority, Jose Carlos Pereira, said
Gol airlines Flight 1907 was traveling at nearly 310 mph when it
slammed into the ground on Friday.

"Our experience shows that when one cannot find the fuselage relatively
intact and when the wreckage is concentrated in a relatively small
area, the chances of finding any survivors are practically
nonexistent," he said.

He said officials were investigating whether the newly purchased Boeing
737 collided with an executive jet before crashing.

If no survivors are found, it would be the deadliest air accident in
Brazil's history. In 1982, a Boeing 727 operated by Brazil's
now-defunct Vasp airline, crashed in the northeastern city of
Fortaleza, killing 137 people.

Pereira said pilots searched for the plane through the night before
finding the wreckage. He said the jungle canopy is so thick that
helicopters will have to lower emergency crews by rope, then those on
the ground would cut down trees to create areas large enough for the
helicopters to land.

"The jungle is so dense that we're going to have to open it up,"
Pereira said. "It's a very complex operation, it's extremely humid
there, and there are millions of mosquitoes."

The Gol flight vanished Friday on its way from Manaus, a major river
city in the heart of the Amazon rain forest, to Rio de Janeiro, 1,700
miles away.

The manager of a cattle ranch near the crash site said the plane may
have crashed inside the nearby Xingu Indian reservation.

"We heard a loud explosion and some of our employees saw a plane flying
low," Milton Picalho, the manager of the 49,000-acre ranch, said by
phone.

The cause of the crash was unclear, but Pereira said the jetliner may
have either collided with a Legacy executive jet or the two aircraft
may have grazed each other.

"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," federal
aviation officials said in a statement early Saturday morning.

The smaller plane, which carries up to 16 passengers, was making its
inaugural flight to the United States, where it had been purchased by
an American company, said its manufacturer, Embraer.

It was piloted by a U.S. citizen, who had left from the airport in Sao
Jose dos Campos, near Sao Paulo, said Bueno, the regional flight
protection head in Sao Paulo.

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

U.S. Consular Officer Robin Busse was at the airport seeking a
passenger list but did not say if any Americans had been aboard either
plane.

Sergio Misaci, 47, said his brother Lazaro, 58, had been traveling to
Brasilia to celebrate their mother's 80th birthday.

"I have all the hope in the world. We have to root for them and have
faith in God," Misaci said.

The Gol flight vanished in the same region where a Varig 737-300 plane
crashed in 1989 with 54 people aboard, 46 of whom survived.

The crash was the first major incident for Gol Linhas Aereas
Intelligentes SA, an upstart Brazilian airline that took to the skies
in 2001 with just six Boeing 737s in 2001.

Since then Gol has rapidly gained market share by offering low-cost
tickets, modeling its service after low-cost carriers in the United
States and Europe. The company is now Brazil's second-largest airline.

BL.
- --
Brad Littlejohn | Email:
Unix Systems Administrator, |
Web + NewsMaster, BOFH.. Smeghead! | http://www.wizard.com/~tyketto
PGP: 1024D/E319F0BF 6980 AAD6 7329 E9E6 D569 F620 C819 199A E319 F0BF

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Colliding smaller plane's crew and passengers reportedly weren't
injured.


A Guy Called Tyketto wrote:
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Hash: SHA1


AP has some good information on this now. Appears they may have
had a MAC with an Embraer Legacy on its inaugural flight to the US.


Survivors Unlikely in Brazilian Crash
Sep 30, 2:19 PM (ET)

By STAN LEHMAN

SAO PAULO, BRAZIL (AP) - Brazilian air force pilots spotted the
wreckage of a jetliner that crashed deep in the Amazon jungle, and an
aviation official said Saturday it was unlikely any of the 155 people
aboard had survived.

The president of Brazil's airport authority, Jose Carlos Pereira, said
Gol airlines Flight 1907 was traveling at nearly 310 mph when it
slammed into the ground on Friday.

"Our experience shows that when one cannot find the fuselage relatively
intact and when the wreckage is concentrated in a relatively small
area, the chances of finding any survivors are practically
nonexistent," he said.

He said officials were investigating whether the newly purchased Boeing
737 collided with an executive jet before crashing.

If no survivors are found, it would be the deadliest air accident in
Brazil's history. In 1982, a Boeing 727 operated by Brazil's
now-defunct Vasp airline, crashed in the northeastern city of
Fortaleza, killing 137 people.

Pereira said pilots searched for the plane through the night before
finding the wreckage. He said the jungle canopy is so thick that
helicopters will have to lower emergency crews by rope, then those on
the ground would cut down trees to create areas large enough for the
helicopters to land.

"The jungle is so dense that we're going to have to open it up,"
Pereira said. "It's a very complex operation, it's extremely humid
there, and there are millions of mosquitoes."

The Gol flight vanished Friday on its way from Manaus, a major river
city in the heart of the Amazon rain forest, to Rio de Janeiro, 1,700
miles away.

The manager of a cattle ranch near the crash site said the plane may
have crashed inside the nearby Xingu Indian reservation.

"We heard a loud explosion and some of our employees saw a plane flying
low," Milton Picalho, the manager of the 49,000-acre ranch, said by
phone.

The cause of the crash was unclear, but Pereira said the jetliner may
have either collided with a Legacy executive jet or the two aircraft
may have grazed each other.

"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," federal
aviation officials said in a statement early Saturday morning.

The smaller plane, which carries up to 16 passengers, was making its
inaugural flight to the United States, where it had been purchased by
an American company, said its manufacturer, Embraer.

It was piloted by a U.S. citizen, who had left from the airport in Sao
Jose dos Campos, near Sao Paulo, said Bueno, the regional flight
protection head in Sao Paulo.

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

U.S. Consular Officer Robin Busse was at the airport seeking a
passenger list but did not say if any Americans had been aboard either
plane.

Sergio Misaci, 47, said his brother Lazaro, 58, had been traveling to
Brasilia to celebrate their mother's 80th birthday.

"I have all the hope in the world. We have to root for them and have
faith in God," Misaci said.

The Gol flight vanished in the same region where a Varig 737-300 plane
crashed in 1989 with 54 people aboard, 46 of whom survived.

The crash was the first major incident for Gol Linhas Aereas
Intelligentes SA, an upstart Brazilian airline that took to the skies
in 2001 with just six Boeing 737s in 2001.

Since then Gol has rapidly gained market share by offering low-cost
tickets, modeling its service after low-cost carriers in the United
States and Europe. The company is now Brazil's second-largest airline.

BL.
- --
Brad Littlejohn | Email:
Unix Systems Administrator, |
Web + NewsMaster, BOFH.. Smeghead! | http://www.wizard.com/~tyketto
PGP: 1024D/E319F0BF 6980 AAD6 7329 E9E6 D569 F620 C819 199A E319 F0BF

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"Robert Cohen" wrote:

Colliding smaller plane's crew and passengers reportedly weren't
injured.

The photos of the bizjet show the winglet missing on one side. No other
apparent damage. Therefore, it is not surprising that nobody was injured.

NY TIMES article about Brazilian judge taking away the passports of
two of the business jet occupants

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/03/wo...=1&oref=slogin


James Robinson wrote:
"Robert Cohen" wrote:

Colliding smaller plane's crew and passengers reportedly weren't
injured.

The photos of the bizjet show the winglet missing on one side. No other
apparent damage. Therefore, it is not surprising that nobody was injured.