[plane intercom beeps]
[airplane engine humming]
THE DEADLIEST AVIATION CRASH IN LATIN AMERICAN HISTORY
[thunder rumbles]
-[somber music playing] -[thunderclap]
It's very sad for us to relive what we went through,
but I think that it is important for us to tell this story,
so that people are aware
and make sure that safety is always taken seriously.
No money in the world can bring back the daughter I lost.
This isn't about compensation.
I don't want to lose my two children who are still here today.
And to make sure of that,
I think that it's important for us to have more safety
in our air transport system.
[sirens wailing]
[reporter 1] July 17, 2007.
[reporter 2] A TAM Airbus A320…
[reporter 1] …crossed the runway at Congonhas Airport in São Paulo…
[reporter 3] …and exploded after crashing into a building owned by the company.
[reporter 4] Right in the middle of the largest city in the country.
[reporter 5] The accident killed all 187 people on board,
and 12 more people died on the ground.
[reporter 6] But the chances of finding survivors are dwindling.
[reporter 7] There are two people at the window!
[man 1] The plane destroyed the building. The people, they died instantly.
They were crushed.
[man 2] In a moment of madness, what did she do?
She grabbed the child, and…
[dramatic music playing]
The problem is that we are dealing with charred corpses.
[camera clicking]
So it's a funeral without a body, you know?
[reporter 8] A police investigation has already been opened to find out
what could have caused the tragedy.
[man 3] However, the Federal Police investigation
was carried out under secrecy.
Why the secrecy?
Come give us explanations!
We often had the feeling that it wasn't an accident, you know? They were murdered.
A TRAGEDY FORETOLD
-[man 4] Everyone knew this would happen. -[man 5] It's a tragedy foretold.
-[reporter 9] A tragedy foretold. -[reporter 10] A tragedy foretold.
[reporter 11] Ten months before the accident with the TAM Airbus,
there was already a crisis happening in the aviation sector.
Some professionals had a duty to act and didn't. It was homicide.
The Senate's Inquiry Commission into the aviation crisis
decided to break the confidentiality
of the director of the National Civil Aviation Agency, Denise Abreu.
[Denise] I'm also a victim.
I was simply elected as a scapegoat
for the political system of this country.
[man 6] Congratulations on all you've been doing, let's keep going.
Count on me for whatever you need.
When I say Olavo is right, it's because Olavo is right.
You can't condemn or acquit anyone just based on hasty opinions.
PRESIDENT
The families believe that justice will finally be served.
We hope for the maximum penalty.
The Air Force is investigating several factors
that may have contributed to the greatest tragedy in Brazilian aviation.
The pilots' testimonies were very convincing
that they were afraid to land at Congonhas.
[man 3] From the beginning,
I wanted to identify the people responsible
for what happened to my daughter.
INVESTIGATOR
[thud]
From the very first night.
[explosion]
[dramatic theme music playing]
A TRAGEDY FORETOLD: FLIGHT 3054
[music ends]
[melancholic music playing]
CONGONHAS AIRPORT SÃO PAULO
[plane engine roars]
[helicopter whirring]
[reporter 1] It's difficult to explain
the workings of an airport swallowed up by a metropolis.
[reporter 2] An island of planes squeezed between houses and residential buildings.
[man 1] I'd compare Congonhas Airport to an aircraft carrier.
[tense music playing]
THE FATEFUL THRESHOLD TO JABAQUARA'S RESIDENTIAL AREA
[camera clicking]
This airport has always, always…
PILOT
…been a challenging airport for pilots to navigate.
Its reputation has always been bad.
And it was getting even worse, some people would say.
[reporter 2] The length of the runway is one of the concerns.
[man 2] Congonhas has no escape area.
The runway ends and there is nowhere to go, either you fall down below,
or off to one side or the other.
[woman 1] They fly by my window,
I could wave to the captain if I wanted to.
Congonhas Airport, in São Paulo, is the busiest airport in the country.
Every minute, there's a plane landing or taking off.
[man 3] It's one plane after another. I mean, this is absurd.
There is no safety.
[Gustavo] This was creating a whole…
A stigma, a greater concern among the crew,
making operations there more challenging.
[woman 2] Then, in 1985, they built Guarulhos
and it was an international airport.
But Congonhas, in a way, was never abandoned,
because it has the advantage of being very close to the city center.
[tense music continues]
At that time, the aviation world was constantly worried. Worried.
AVIATION HISTORIAN
"Congonhas is horrible, Congonhas is tense,
because it's way too busy."
It felt like there was something brewing in the air.
CONGONHAS AIRPORT
[horns honking]
[reporter 3] There are too many people and planes for just one airport.
[reporter 4] In Congonhas, the busiest airport in Latin America,
chaos began early, with 160 delayed flights.
[man 4] An airport that is obsolete, outdated and defective.
It's time for us to reassess what the future holds for this airport.
[Cláudia] The Congonhas accident happens in this scenario.
It's a complicated scenario,
as if the air was kind of heavier, you know?
-[plane engine roars] -[music ends]
[ominous music playing]
JULY 17, 2007 5:00 PM 2 HOURS BEFORE THE ACCIDENT
[footsteps clacking]
SALGADO FILHO AIRPORT PORTO ALEGRE
[interviewer] How did Flight 3054 take off from Porto Alegre?
THAÍS' FATHER
[sighs]
I saw the entire boarding process.
-[intercom chimes] -[indistinct murmuring]
Thaís was coming to São Paulo.
It was only the second time she had flown alone.
She was making new friends, you know, at a new school.
She invited a friend to spend the July vacation here in São Paulo.
[camera clicking]
A friend, a classmate of hers, Thaís…
REBECA'S FATHER
…was coming to São Paulo to visit her grandparents and invited Rebeca.
[tense music playing]
I already knew her parents, so I said, "No problem."
[woman speaking indistinctly over intercom]
[Dario] I took her to the airport.
Rebeca's mother took her and they met at the airport. They were really excited.
[interviewer] Did she call you from the airport?
She called me from the airport.
She called and said, "Thanks for the trip, Daddy. I love you."
[tense music continues]
That was still during that Aviation Blackout.
There was chaos in the transportation system.
You know, all the airports.
I took a friend to the airport.
He told me, "Wow, this airport is terrible."
I say, "Yeah, and my daughter is flying, little does she know
what's waiting for her in this chaos, this mess."
I could never have imagined what was actually waiting for her.
-[tense music continues] -[crowd chattering indistinctly]
[Dario] Her grandfather was going to pick them up at the airport, here in São Paulo.
I waited for them to board.
In fact, I saw so many people getting on that plane
that I said, "Wow, so many people fit in there."
-[thunder rumbles] -[announcement chime]
-[woman 1] Pick me up at Congonhas? -[woman 2] He was visiting a client.
[man] It was the last takeoff for that aircraft.
[indistinct chattering in Portuguese]
[man, in English] It was the last trip of those people's lives.
-[indistinct chattering in Portuguese] -[dramatic ripping sounds]
[music intensifies then fades out]
[man, in English] And then the nightmare started.
-[ominous music playing] -[thunder rumbles]
6:46 PM 2 MINUTES BEFORE THE ACCIDENT
[pilot] Control, São Paulo, TAM 3054.
Control, could you inform TAM 3054 if it's raining in Congonhas?
[air traffic controller] Light, continuous rain, the runway is wet,
but it hasn't been reported as slippery as of yet, okay?
What speed are you maintaining, 3054?
[pilot] Currently, 124 knots.
[heavy rain patter]
[plane intercom beeps]
[pilot] Crew, prepare for landing.
-[sirens wailing] -[horns honking]
[man] It had been cold that day.
It was July, it was rainy.
I was an IT project manager.
[camera clicks]
It was a… a very… very busy building.
TAM EXPRESS BUILDING
About 100 people, 150.
But our routine was there, landings, takeoffs, landings, takeoffs.
The noise levels, you know, we get used to it.
All day long, you're there, you… you hear that.
[ominous music continues]
[pilot] Could you please confirm the conditions?
[air traffic controller] TAM 3054, runway is wet and slippery,
35 left free, landing authorized.
-[plane engine roars] -[tires squeak]
I was just about done with my work,
Wanderlei was around, and I said, "Hey, I'm done here."
We always left together, we were talking as usual.
And suddenly there was this… this engine noise
getting louder and closer, closer.
[tense music playing]
A very loud sound.
Getting closer.
Then came the crash.
[music intensifies and stops]
[explosion]
[sirens wailing]
It all happened very quickly.
[man 1] Isn't that an airplane over there?
[man 2] Yeah, it's a plane.
[man 3] It flew over our heads. We were eating.
[man 1] Watch out, man.
-[man 4] It skidded off? -[man 3] It skidded off over there, look.
[sirens wailing]
[man 3] Look, people are screaming for help over there!
[man 1] Calm down! Get the fire extinguishers!
Don't jump! Don't jump! Don't jump!
[sirens and horns continue]
[tense music playing]
We didn't even have time to say, "What's that? What's happening?"
"Is that…" There wasn't time.
Our reaction was to run to a safe area.
We didn't know what it was.
[sirens continue]
FIREFIGHTERS
I was one of the first responders at the scene.
[camera clicks]
POLICE VILLAIN, FIRE HERO
I remember well that it was already getting dark.
MAJOR FIRE DEPARTMENT
As I was going up Bandeirantes Avenue, I saw a flash
that looked like a sun.
[tragic music playing]
I didn't see the plane.
The fuel spread throughout the structure of the building, you know?
The heat was so intense,
that the water evaporated before it even reached the center of that ball of fire.
[firefighter 1, over radio] More water. I need more water!
We're running out of water, we're running out of water over here.
An officer told me, "Lieutenant, we're running out of water."
"I don't care about the water right now."
"I want to find a way to get those people who are jumping from the building."
-[ominous music playing] -[sirens wailing]
[firefighter 2, over radio] Please, dispatch, check the possibility
of sending vehicles with ladders,
considering there are people threatening to jump out of the burning building, over.
[reporter] Employees on the first floor of the building tried to escape the flames.
This woman jumped and was rescued by men from the Fire Department.
[dramatic music playing]
[muffled screams]
And someone said, "Don't go to the stairs, that's where most of the smoke is."
That was the moment
I realized there was no more oxygen.
[dramatic sting]
At the same time, someone also shouted, "Let's get down on the ground to breathe."
So I called Wanderlei.
He said, "I'm here, give me your hand."
And I found his hand, like that, in the dark.
[people coughing]
And we started feeling around,
crouching down on the ground, and we shouted to people,
"This way, guys. It's a hallway."
But they were like, "I don't know where I am, I don't know where I am."
[ominous music playing]
I could hear the noise of the fire, which is terrifying.
Like, it makes us afraid, because it sounds like a dragon.
[dramatic rumble]
The building was melting, there was fire all around.
Instead of dripping wax, there was dripping bricks, chips were melting off.
[sirens wail]
[camera clicks]
For me, it was devastating.
As firefighters, we call it "The accident's kinematics."
COLONEL FIRE DEPARTMENT
The kinematics of the plane hitting the building,
at 110 miles per hour,
no one could have survived that. It would take a miracle.
But we're in the business of miracles, so…
I'm sure that most firefighters, I guess, believe in miracles.
That's the truth.
POLICE
-[sirens wailing] -[helicopter whirring]
[reporter 1] The accident hit part of a gas station,
which is why firefighters are concerned about new explosions.
But the plane destroyed the cargo building of the TAM airline.
[reporter 2] At the time of the accident, there were more than 50 people
working in the TAM Express hangar.
[tense music playing]
[Wagner] The gas station, yeah. That's where I was sent to, right?
I looked at the underground tanks, asked how much was in them.
We couldn't have the building collapsing or the fire spreading to the gas station.
But from my experience at the time, I…
I knew that the fire wouldn't be contained so easily.
Something told me,
"I'm not going to die here."
[people coughing]
"I'm not going to die at work."
"And I'm getting out."
I grabbed a chair and broke two windows.
[Henguel] Someone came and said,
"There are more people at the window, they're going to jump."
And I saw that there were two people trying to breathe,
half of their bodies out.
And I shouted at them, "Calm down, don't jump!"
'Cause, man, when I got there, two people had jumped already.
And then I see more people who were also about to jump.
Because there was smoke coming from outside with the wind,
and also very intense heat coming from inside.
Wanderlei was fading fast because he was struggling to breathe.
Then I started yelling at people, "I need a ladder! I need a ladder!"
And Wanderlei was getting weaker
and the heat was increasing and we were all so desperate.
I lifted the ladder and climbed up, there was a very small ledge.
I stepped on it and figured I'd go from landing to landing until I reached them.
And I broke a window to try to hold on to the frame.
But when I broke it, all this heat came out,
this black smoke that was trapped inside.
The heat was so strong that it burned my hand.
Then I realized that I wasn't gonna be able to get to them.
And I climbed back down.
And he kept saying that he couldn't take it anymore, that he was tired,
that he couldn't breathe.
And I kept talking to him to keep him awake, you know?
-[sirens wailing] -[people shouting]
[Henguel] Then I saw a truck with a ladder.
I ran up to it, climbed up on the driver's side
and told him, "Come with me!"
-[sirens wailing] -[tense music playing]
I climbed to the top of the ladder
and he raised it, lifted it, all the way up.
[sirens wailing]
[reporter] There he goes, there he goes,
with the help of an aerial ladder, one of the firefighters
is now able to reach these people
and the rescue is happening.
I said, "Take Wanderlei, get over there."
"Get him, he needs to go urgently."
-[helicopter overhead] -[siren wailing]
The moment he threw himself into the basket, he passed out right there.
[sirens continue]
[indistinct chatter]
[Wanderlei coughs]
[music ends]
[footsteps approaching]
[dramatic sting]
I'm Wanderlei Silva. I was in the TAM accident.
-[camera click] -[somber music playing]
[trembling voice] It's…
I remember a hero.
A guy who
tried to get us with a… with a regular ladder, right?
To save our lives.
So, I'm grateful.
So I have eternal gratitude towards this person.
And also to… to Paulo Zani,
who was there and witnessed this accident with me.
And that together, we…
We managed to… to be here today.
[camera click]
-[sirens wailing] -[helicopter whirring]
[reporter] Now the other person will try to climb out.
He was rescued, he was rescued. The second person has just been rescued.
I was crying, and… thanking him.
I said, "We escaped and we're… we're alive."
[sirens wailing]
And I was still conscious.
That's when I asked the nurse, "What happened?"
And she said, "A TAM Airbus crashed into the building."
I said, "That's not possible."
"I don't believe it."
[sirens wailing]
We escaped
something this… this huge.
[helicopter whirring]
[indistinct shouts]
[reporter 1] Several bodies have already been removed,
and there are more to follow.
They're throwing some foam and water over us,
because there's still a risk of fire around here.
Look, right now I can see the body of a man being removed.
-[reporter 2] My God. -[reporter 1] A shocking scene. I'm sorry.
[reporter 2] Why are firefighters running, Léo?
[Léo] Everyone's running. It's gonna collapse!
[reporter 2] There's a risk of the building collapsing.
Léo is also moving away from the scene, because the building could fall.
The structure has been completely compromised.
-[dramatic sting] -[indistinct chatter]
[man] Whoa! Whoa!
[dramatic sting]
[dramatic music playing]
He died during prime-time television.
He and others.
And the news made it into a spectacle, as if it was a movie.
[camera clicking]
I was working. And then I heard the news about a tragedy
happening at Congonhas Airport.
That a TAM cargo plane had crashed into a building.
MÁRIO'S BROTHER
[reporter] At first, Infraero reported the crash of a small plane.
But in the meantime, it was a matter of a minute.
A minute or so.
It wasn't a cargo plane. It was a passenger plane.
[reporter] We still don't know which flight it is,
where it came from, where it was going,
if it was a stopover, if it was a connection,
and how many passengers were on the plane.
When I heard that, I went cold.
[reporter] We are talking about a huge plane that had an accident
while landing at Congonhas Airport, in São Paulo.
And then the nightmare began.
The unbelievable began.
[reporter] It was Flight JJ3054,
which left Porto Alegre at 5:16 p.m.
We knew he had boarded, but not the flight number,
we didn't know which flight.
So we called the… the owner of the agency
and he told us that Mário had bought a ticket for Flight JJ3054.
And then hope becomes a trap.
"Well, who knows? Maybe, because of the blackout,
he wasn't on that flight."
And still we kept trying to call his cell phone.
And it went to voicemail.
[dial tone]
[cell phone vibrating]
[cell phone continues vibrating]
And we were getting ready to go out to dinner,
when Rebeca's mother called me.
[sighs]
And told me that there had been an accident.
It was like the ground had disappeared beneath our feet, you know?
Um, we had…
[melancholic music playing]
[reporter 1] At Salgado Filho Airport in Porto Alegre,
where TAM Flight 3054 departed from,
the delay in releasing the names on the passenger list
angered the victims' relatives searching for news.
Who did the check-in?
Tell me, please! I want to know!
-[man] I want to know, Isabel. -I want to know, tell me!
Tell me!
[Dario] Salgado Filho was in chaos,
because people wanted to know who was there.
Who was on the passenger list?
I said, "I don't need to know if she was on the list,
because I waited for my daughter to get on that plane."
If that was really Flight 3054, I don't need any confirmation.
I know she was on the plane.
-Why don't you give us the list? -You have to show us the passenger list.
Everyone's families are waiting, and you do nothing.
"It's coming out in ten minutes, in half an hour."
When? Tomorrow? Next year?
I had to know if my brother was on that flight.
[indistinct chattering]
"Check your computer, see if he boarded."
Even bus stations kept track of passengers.
They know who is on their buses.
This is an airline we're talking about.
[reporter 1] Outraged, the relatives threatened to break into the TAM counter.
When that commotion started, the riot police got there.
The riot police are here in full force to attack the families.
This is the only measure they've taken so far.
Just show us the list.
If I see my brother's name on it,
then my hope of him being alive will depend on my faith.
[reporter 2] The family members arrived at a hotel in downtown Porto Alegre
shortly before midnight.
The lack of updates have been their main complaint.
Some threatened to file a police report for negligence.
They brought us here, and if things aren't resolved, we'll be filing a lawsuit.
The legal deadline of six hours has passed, we're going back to the airport.
Until, uh…
[sighs]
…a news station…
a news station got the list.
And there was a radio on the counter.
Then they started reading the list.
And we were more and more terrified
as they got closer to the letter M for Mário.
[somber music playing]
Over seven hours after the accident,
the media has begun reporting the passenger list.
And the family members who are waiting for official information from TAM,
ended up receiving the news on the radio.
With each name that is announced, a reaction.
Some people required medical attention.
[crying and murmuring]
[camera click]
Well, I went to TAM, and I said, "I want to go to São Paulo."
"Oh no, we can't, everything is closed."
I went to Gol. I said, "I want to buy a ticket to São Paulo."
"No, there aren't any flights at all."
I said, "Well, how do I get to São Paulo?"
I told my wife, "I'm driving to São Paulo. I'm going to São Paulo."
"My daughter is there."
Then an attendant said, "Sir, come with me."
And she put me on a flight to Guarulhos.
It was a horrible flight.
The flight attendants who had lost their coworkers and all.
My father-in-law, who was in Congonhas, went to Guarulhos to meet me.
I think I didn't even talk to him, you know? What was the point?
I know how he felt.
I was so shaken, with my loss.
But he had lost his granddaughter.
[interviewer] And how was your meeting in Guarulhos?
[deep sigh]
Quiet. We hugged.
That's it.
[music fades out]
[muffled helicopter sound]
[tense music playing]
[reporter 1] These were the scenes that São Paulo woke up to.
[reporter 2] It looks like the building was bombed,
given the state that it's in now.
[reporter 3] The Fire Department's work
should be finished by the end of this week.
Then there's another problem to deal with. What to do about the building?
According to the Fire Department,
the structure has already sunk four inches, and it's still moving.
And one of the firefighters' missions was to locate the black boxes.
[dramatic sting]
You ask a firefighter today, what is a black box, huh?
The black box is actually orange, and there are two of them.
[Henguel] In a scenario like that, where everything was on fire,
everything is black.
Everything is burned.
[reporter 4] The dialogue from the black box
could indicate the causes of the accident that killed almost 200 people.
Many experts are already here, surveying the scene.
[camera clicking]
Look, at one point, the fire wasn't under control.
FORENSIC EXPERT
It kept burning for about four days.
FORENSIC PHOTOS BY ANTONIO NOGUEIRA
[camera click]
[thud]
[camera clicks]
[Antonio] We couldn't get inside.
However, the debris that was being collected
was immediately transported to a TAM hangar inside the airport.
Removing the debris also took a very long time,
including the removal of the black boxes, which were prioritized in the operation.
[reporter 1] The two black boxes of the TAM Airbus A320
will be sent to Washington, D.C. in the United States for analysis.
[reporter 2] On Thursday, the airline announced
that the plane's two black boxes
were already on their way to the United States.
At that time, I was at the head of the runway.
And when I got down again,
the Air Force, along with the firefighters,
had already found the boxes.
The Air Force guys walked past us with the black box and my troop.
The firefighters said, "Chief, that wasn't a black box."
But they're the Air Force, right?
So we respected it.
There was confusion over sending equipment from the TAM plane
for analysis in the United States.
[reporter 3] One of the pieces of equipment sent for analysis
was a different part, not the black box with the conversation
between the pilot and co-pilot inside the cockpit.
The thing is, there are two black boxes. One records data. The other, voice.
-[cell phone rings] -[tense music playing]
So I got a call.
"Hey, Guga, are you at the site?"
I said, "Yeah, I'm here at the crash site."
"So, uh, the voice recorder is there somewhere."
The voice recorder.
I remember cursing.
"You gotta be kidding me." "No, no, it's there." I said, "No, it's not here."
There was almost nothing left of the wreckage.
There was nothing left. The site was clean.
"No, it must be there somewhere."
[camera clicks]
The voice recorder was taken someplace else with the debris.
It wasn't sent with the data recorder.
[tense music continues]
FOUR DAYS AFTER THE ACCIDENT
[reporter 4] The real box with the conversation
between the pilot and the control tower was only found this morning.
It even made us kind of proud, I was like, "We told you that wasn't it."
[interviewer] What was sent instead?
Oh, if I remember correctly, it was a coffee maker.
Something like that. Completely unrelated.
[reporter 5] The expectation is that, within a month,
the conversations between pilot Kleyber Aguiar Lima
and co-pilot Henrique di Sacco
with the Congonhas control tower will be revealed.
[camera click]
[Antonio] Without examining the black boxes,
we couldn't, uh…
There was no way to know what had happened.
[reporter 6] There are several hypotheses for the accident.
THE HYPOTHESES FOR THE ACCIDENT
THE RUNWAY
RAIN
REVERSE
WEIGHT
SPEED
PILOT - RUNWAY - PLANE
Most experts agree that the first possibility is that the Airbus pilot
actually tried to take off again.
[reporter 7] The pilot might have tried to abort the landing.
[reporter 8] The second hypothesis is that the pilot tried to brake,
lost control of the plane and veered off the left side of the runway.
[reporter 9] The third hypothesis mentions the water accumulation on the runway.
The rain, the grooves, the oily asphalt. There was a lot of speculation.
[man] It might be problems with the plane,
uh, a problem with the brakes,
it could be that it came in too fast.
[reporter 10] A day before the accident, three aircrafts had to abort landing,
and eight reported the runway was slippery.
What do these reports mean? At first, it had been an accident.
Then we learn that the runway was in bad condition.
The aircraft was in bad condition.
The answer could only come from the airline.
-[loud hubbub] -[horns blaring]
[reporter 11] At the press conference, TAM's CEO, Marco Bologna,
lamented the accident.
He stated that the aircraft was in perfect condition.
In perfect conditions of maintenance, airworthiness and operation.
[reporter 12] The TAM Airbus A320 landed at the Congonhas fully loaded
and practically at its weight limit.
Safety should always be first above anything else.
[reporter 12] Here are TAM's seven commandments on the company's website.
[Dario] TAM's first commandment is that nothing replaces profit.
[reporter 12] And third on the list,
"Safety is more important than the customers."
There were several mistakes.
[tires squeal]
There was a braking problem.
The plane was fully loaded,
with a pilot in the co-pilot's seat.
The correct procedure would be to have a pilot and a co-pilot.
They are different roles.
That is yet another mistake by the airline.
[dramatic music playing]
[woman] It just confirmed the behavior of a company that disregards human life.
My daughter didn't have to die. None of the 199 victims had to die.
[Christophe] That's why I'm not afraid to say
that TAM is a murderous airline!
FEDERAL POLICE
Who is to blame?
Who authorized this plane?
TAM had no idea what was coming for them.
And we will not stop until these murderers are behind bars!
[music ends]
[intense, dramatic music playing]
[music fades out]
[eerie, industrial music playing]
[music fades out]
[unsettling music playing]
[music becomes percussive]
[music ends]