Since 2007, Congonhas airport in São Paulo has undergone changes following the accident with Tam Airbus (now Latam) and recommendations made by the Center for Research and Prevention of Aeronautical Accidents (Cenipa). To increase safety on the terminal lane, a number of measures were taken, including a reduction in the number of authorizations for landings and departures.

According to Anac, one of the measures was the determination of the fixed number of slots (landing and take-off authorizations). Prior to the crash, the airport operated without a set limit, with up to 38 slots per hour. Currently, the limit for commercial aviation has been set at 33 slots per hour. General aviation has two movements per hour on the main lane and four per hour on the auxiliary lane.

A new air network was also established, organizing routes and flight schedules, as well as increasing operational oversight of airlines. In addition, a normative instruction prohibits landings and takeoffs at the airport when systems that increase the braking performance of the aircraft (reverse) are inoperative. The runways currently have grooving.

Latam Airlines said all company procedures have been improved. “[There are still] new technological capabilities that can support us in the agility of the whole process of investigation and care of the family.” The company informed that the causes of the accident were informed by Cenipa and that it complied with the 24 recommendations made by the agency for the improvement of aviation safety. “Many of these recommendations were already implemented by the company and were improved after that.”

According to Latam, among the recommendations adopted by the company are the creation of programs to raise safety awareness among all employees, reinforcement of the appropriate procedure with the crew in case the aircraft operates with restrictions in the reversor, standardization of the applied training To the pilots to be familiar to act in the function of co-pilots, reinforcement in the training processes for the formation and recycling of pilots.

“An air crash occurs due to a combination of factors, which is why it is so important to analyze information and research by competent bodies so that the entire sector can understand the hypotheses for this, as well as gather learning”, points out the company.

Infraero said that the routine of checking items considered critical to the airports it manages in the country, such as pavement, attrition, macrotexture of the runway, signaling and assistance to air navigation, were systematized and intensified after the accident. In Congonhas, specifically, operational adjustments were made. The declared take-off and landing distances, which previously were 1,940 meters on the main runway and 1,345 on the auxiliary runway, were reduced on the main runway to 1,790 meters on takeoff and 1,660 for landing, and on the auxiliary runway for 1,345 meters on takeoff and 1,195 Landing, thus enabling the deployment of a security area.

Fire Department
According to Colonel Wagner Bertolini Junior, Subcommander of the Fire Department of São Paulo, after the first accident with a Tam airplane, the Fokker 100, in 1996, the firefighters’ preparation was improved. The aircraft crashed over some houses, seconds after taking off from Congonhas. In all, 99 people died in the tragedy.

“After Tam’s first accident, we’ve been running great simulations every year.” In one of these trainings, the Fire Department asked that a São Paulo samba school make a plane, used in a simulation of an accident, in which the aircraft fell on a city.

More trained, the firefighters could, for example, in the second accident, retrieve objects from the victims, which helped in identifying the bodies. “We were searching for our belongings because it was often the difference between a family distressed by the presence of someone [in the place] or not,” he explained.

“The only thing we could not minimize was the tears of family members. But we tried to make it as organized as possible and respectful to the people who lost their loved ones there, “said the colonel.

Source: Panrotas

Photo: Reproduction