THE DEADLIEST AVIATION CRASH IN LATIN AMERICAN HISTORY
1 DAY AFTER THE ACCIDENT
On Wednesday morning,
the victims' families traveled from Porto Alegre to São Paulo
on another TAM flight.
When we landed at Guarulhos Airport,
a bus was there to pick us up right off the plane.
I remember seeing police outriders at every traffic light…
REBECA'S FATHER
…helping the bus through.
The whole city was paralyzed.
It was still numb and shocked by what had happened.
A rare sight in São Paulo.
Around 7 a.m., it stopped raining,
and the airport resumed normal flight operations
on the auxiliary runway at Congonhas Airport.
-The next day, you landed in Congonhas? -Yes.
We got off the plane right on the runway and headed on foot to a lounge area,
in the direction of the crash.
We could still see the smoke lingering, and the smell was very strong.
All I could think of was whether my girls were still there.
Or if they'd already been removed, along with my mom.
What we felt was really…
You could really feel the magnitude of the horror that had taken place.
That was when we truly realized the reality
of what was to come.
The tragedy made headlines on CNN International.
The athletes weren't the only ones holding a moment of silence.
The first to send condolences was Argentina's president, Néstor Kirchner.
Chile's president, Michele Bachelet, Pope Benedict XVI,
and China's president, Hu Jintao, expressed their solidarity.
President Lula summoned his top ministers.
The plane's two black boxes will be sent to the United States for analysis.
A police investigation has been opened to find out the causes of the crash.
Several family members find it hard to accept the crash.
Family members call for transparency in the investigation
and for the responsible parties to be punished once found.
I wanted to know, from the very first day,
what had actually transpired.
I needed to know what happened. Who killed my daughter?
Was it by omission? Negligence?
What was it?
A TRAGEDY FORETOLD: FLIGHT 3054
This is the hotel in São Paulo
where the airline placed the victims' families.
Approximately 50 people came from the Rio Grande do Sul state.
The others were from São Paulo and other cities in the country.
One of the main reasons
for gathering everyone in one single location
was to ensure direct and identical communication to everyone.
I said, "My family lives in São Paulo, so I won't stay at a hotel."
THAIS'S FATHER
"I just need you to let me know when you learn anything."
So, the next day, I went to the hotel to see if there were any updates.
When I got there, I saw a meeting with the TAM board taking place.
I asked, "When were you gonna tell me there was a meeting?"
Everything coming from the airline was completely disorganized.
"If this is how you'll play, I'll stay at the hotel,
since things are developing here."
We all felt the same and bonded over the same pain.
Nobody would say, "Hey, how are you?"
Then we would learn about each other's stories.
The last time I talked to my mom,
she was holding two sheets of paper and handed them to me.
I asked what those were. She said, "It's the flight information."
"Mom, why are you doing this?"
She had never done that before.
In 2005, I decided to move to Japan.
I worked there for two years, until the crash.
He answered the phone. My mom usually did that.
My son Levy used to say, "Good night, sir."
"Good afternoon, sir."
He was 20 months old and very well-spoken.
When I was leaving,
I saw him sleeping.
I kissed him and left.
That was the last kiss.
The last one.
When he boarded that flight,
already inside the plane,
he sent my mom a text.
"Mom, I did what I came here for. I'm going back home."
MOM, I DID WHAT I CAME HERE FOR. I'M GOING BACK HOME.
Before handing my mom the phone, as we were saying goodbye,
he told me he loved me, which was something he never did.
And that meant a lot to me.
My mom kept that cellphone for many years.
Because, for her, that message was…
really him telling her he was leaving.
FLIGHT JJ-3054 TRAGEDY
MANAUS LAWYER LOSES WIFE AND SON
I saw it happen.
FATHER TRAVELS FIRST AND WITNESSES THE CRASH THAT KILLED HIS FAMILY
It happened so fast.
The plane crashed, and then I saw the explosion.
The smell of kerosene hit me like a hurricane.
A scream immediately came out of me.
From where my brother lived,
you could see the airport and even the actual crash site.
My mom called me screaming.
We still don't know which flight it was, its origin, and destination,
if it was a connection flight, or how many passengers were on board.
I quickly grabbed the two sheets of paper that my mom had left me.
We got confirmation.
It was flight 3054 from Porto Alegre.
And I said, "I killed my daughter."
I kept walking up and down the street several times.
I lost my safe haven, which was my mom,
and the ones I was supposed to be a safe haven to.
All at once.
When I got to the hotel, I went straight to the basement.
That was where the families were gathered.
I called it Dante's Inferno.
There were about 400 people in the auditorium.
There were about 200 families.
People from 17 states and 7 countries died.
Between children and adults, 154 people were left orphaned.
Then TAM started doing its job.
TAM's CEO claims all families will be compensated,
and that they're currently receiving all possible assistance,
such as accommodation and food.
TAM liked to release those reports
about how much they were spending on the families.
I couldn't care less.
They could've kept it all. I just needed my daughter.
…THAT SHOOK BRAZIL FACES OF THE TRAGEDY THAT…
Applause to the victims' families,
flowers to TAM's employees.
I know there are TAM employees who are grieving, who lost loved ones,
but I won't accept a marketing campaign on my wife's death.
They should be held accountable.
They wanted to uphold their reputation as the biggest airline in Latin America.
My name is Marco Antônio Bologna.
Back in 2007, I was the CEO of TAM Airlines.
Marco saw the crash site for the first time.
One of his aircraft crashed into his own company property.
It was unbelievable.
There were times I thought, "This company's done for."
During the 90-min-long press conference,
TAM's CEO stated that the aircraft was in perfect condition.
The first question is always whether there's an issue with the plane.
After that, we obviously try to find out the reason why.
He chose not to elaborate on the causes of the crash.
When you still don't have the investigation results,
it is unwise to try to infer the reasons why.
You will repeat this same answer several times.
"We must wait for the investigations and for the authorities' conclusions."
TAM's CEO Marco Antônio Bologna arrived by helicopter at the hotel in São Paulo
where the victims' families are staying.
I described this meeting
as "how not to address victim's families."
The company's CEO arrived by helicopter.
The untouchable.
First, you greet the families.
You hug them. You experience the emotions.
He got on stage and kept his distance.
The CEO should be among the people. He should come and say, "I'm here."
Then, several security guards stepped into the room.
I'm Sandra Assali,
president of ABRAPAVAA,
the Brazilian Association of Relatives and Friends of Air Disaster Victims.
Some family members tried to get closer,
but security would come and push them back.
A family member kept verbally attacking everybody at the table,
calling us murderers.
As if we had been directly responsible.
And because she kept doing it,
it triggered this fear response in the company.
"They'll come for our heads."
It's worth noting that TAM had also had another crash in 1996.
OCTOBER 31ST, 1996
So, two crashes at the same airport by the same airline.
That just amplifies things.
It's like reliving a previous crash.
Back then, the CEO was Captain Rolim.
In today's aeronautical field,
if you mention Rolim,
you might as well be mentioning God.
I'd never dare to compare myself to Captain Rolim.
He was a true icon.
Many of the things I say today came from the literature he left.
He was very poetic.
I cannot fathom a company whose seven commandments
begin with this one:
"Nothing is above profit."
Instead of safety.
There was a lot of talk because it seemed that there was an order to these values.
But nothing would change even if you reversed said order.
-So why weren't they reversed? -Just because.
We were part of a legacy.
The government goes after people who own imported cars,
people who own boats.
They should go after the ones who don't own those things!
We should glorify successful people!
WOULD YOU STILL RISK FLYING WITH TAM?
WARNING: FLYING WITH TAM COULD KILL YOU!
Every meeting with TAM was tense.
It's not easy being face-to-face
with the company that led to my daughter's death.
If we already start with opposition, things just go downhill from there.
And downhill they went.
JULY 23, 2007 SEVEN DAYS AFTER THE ACCIDENT
The vastness of Sé Cathedral, in downtown São Paulo,
paled in comparison to the suffering of 3,000 people.
Very few families were able to bury their loved ones.
Most bodies are still counted as missing.
TAM's CEO left the church escorted by his advisors.
After mass, the victims' friends and families came to the crash site
to demand faster identification of the bodies already found.
I know that finding my daughter will be really hard.
So I ask, what will be left of my daughter?
The families were asked to bring as much identifying data as possible,
such as documents, pictures, and X-rays.
We think it's something so simple.
As in, we hand in a document, and they let us take them.
But that's not how it goes. It's actually very traumatic.
They ask you a lot of questions.
"Had they ever had any fractures?"
"Have they had any surgeries?"
"Any tooth cavities?"
With every negative answer, the more desperate I became,
because I thought,
"They won't be able to identify them."
"They won't be able to identify them, because they were perfect."
You take such great care,
just for that care to cause you this much desperation.
FUNERARY SERVICES OF SÃO PAULO
We thought of bodies just to give our souls some comfort,
but we knew there were just parts.
Because there were two explosions,
and the fire lasted for hours.
We couldn't access the bodies right away,
because they were extremely hot.
At first analysis, we check the condition of the bodies.
"The condition of this one
allows for identification via fingerprints."
"These over here will be identified through dental records."
"These cannot be identified in any other way than through DNA."
Our job must be extremely technical and scientific.
There's no room for hurry or haste.
The goal is to give an answer
with concrete proof that that's indeed your loved one.
Imagine messing that up.
I had to go to the ME's Office.
Even if it was just to open a door and see nobody there.
Or one person, or 50. Anyone.
"Please have mercy on a grieving father."
"Open the door."
"No, we can't."
"It's absolutely impossible."
We were able to get a meeting with state government representatives.
During the meeting, it was decided
that a commission formed by relatives of the victims
would be allowed into the ME's Office.
When they got there, the coroners stopped performing the autopsy.
MEDICAL EXAMINER
They put the scalpel on the table, looked at the families,
and both groups started crying.
After the visit, there was a mix of pain and relief.
I felt peace in being able to say they're doing all they can.
And now we must wait.
I think that was comforting for the families.
At the Medical Examiner's Office, it was the most emotional I'd ever felt.
Humans are ritualistic beings.
We have a ritual for everything.
Like our farewell ritual.
Today marked the burial of the second victim.
Michele Dias de Miranda was a TAM employee.
We have him now.
But many are still looking for their loved ones.
Our greatest fear was that nothing would be found.
The family of Jamile Leão and 20-month-old Levy
awaits the identification of their bodies to return to Manaus.
And the reports kept coming, with the names of the ones identified.
IDENTIFIED AFTER 10 DAYS.
Then, they'd call the families,
and it was very painful because people would just lose it.
IDENTIFIED AFTER 13 DAYS.
IDENTIFIED AFTER 19 DAYS.
The feeling is a mix of relief
and, "I don't want this news."
MEDICAL EXAMINER'S OFFICE MORGUE
At the Medical Examiner's Office, we didn't ask for Mário.
We'd ask, "Which stage are we in right now?"
"We're entering the red stage. It's getting harder and harder."
Because now we had gotten to the DNA tests.
IDENTIFIED AFTER 15 DAYS.
It was awful…
seeing that closed casket.
Today I'm glad, 'cause my last memory is of him alive.
In Porto Alegre, relatives and friends said goodbye to Rodrigo Prado Almeida.
The body of pharmacist Marta Laudaris was buried today in Belo Horizonte.
The funeral was today in Niterói, Rio de Janeiro.
After 15 days of going to the Medical Examiner's Office,
we started asking, "What about Mário?"
IDENTIFIED AFTER 18 DAYS.
For us, it felt like forever.
But the extent of the task they had at hand
was of Herculean proportions.
We'd come back the next day asking, "What about Mário?"
IDENTIFIED AFTER 22 DAYS.
It felt like winning the lottery.
IDENTIFIED AFTER 30 DAYS.
I made a point of seeing what they had identified of my daughter.
And, yes, their work deserves recognition.
I think I got more of her school ID than I did of her.
It's just so sad. And that's why I say she was cremated right there.
Unfortunately, four victims were completely pulverized in that crash.
IDENTIFIED AFTER 29 DAYS.
My guess is that Levy fused into her.
Because in a moment of despair, what would she have done?
She'd have brought him close…
You know what lingers within me?
The feeling that
they'll come back.
That tomorrow…
How long has that feeling lingered?
I think…
it still does.
As the funeral came to an end, the family demanded justice.
The family expects there to be an in-depth investigation.
RUNWAY CONDITIONS IN CRITICAL STATE SINCE 2004
A friend of an onboard flight attendant sums it up.
It's awful, but it was bound to happen.
A TRAGEDY FORETOLD
One of our lines of investigation
is that the runway itself may have contributed to the crash.
Transmissions between pilots and air traffic controllers
24 hours before the crash
confirm that the runway didn't hold up well under rain.
Be sure not to touch down too far ahead. The runway is slippery.
In the last four years alone, six planes have skidded in Congonhas.
A day before the TAM Airbus crash,
a Pantanal Airline plane skidded when landing on the main runway.
Authorities demand to know
if the runway renovations at Congonhas Airport
were conducted in accordance with safety standards.
They were resurfacing the runway, which really needed it.
But one thing was still a work in progress:
the so-called grooving, which consists of etchings
designed to prevent water buildup on the runway in rainy conditions.
It's a water drainage system.
We found that the absence of this grooving
contributed immensely to this foretold tragedy.
The runway was released with no grooving.
…known as grooving.
…but it had no grooving.
And there was a political nuance to it, because, back then,
Infraero was the one that had commissioned that project.
The responsibility for the renovations
falls entirely on Infraero and the federal government.
The state-owned company manages the airports.
What happened was more than a crash.
It was a massacre.
Until proven otherwise, the government is responsible.
My name is Clara Ant.
In 2007,
I was an advisor to President Lula during his administration.
I was in a meeting with him.
At the moment, there were just the two of us.
President Lula answered the phone.
And then came the tragic news of that TAM crash.
It was a difficult moment.
Dramatic, really.
LULA SUMMONS MINISTERS AND DECLARES THREE DAYS OF MOURNING
Lula asked me to contact field experts and researchers
whose focus of study was Aviation.
Because Lula wanted to learn
everything he could about the crash and about what could be done next.
All day long, the flags at half-mast for the official three days of mourning
seemed to be the only visible action taken by the government.
Yesterday, the press secretary was the one to deliver the government's response,
which took four and a half hours to happen.
According to his advisors, President Lula decided not to comment
to avoid disputing versions of the crash with the opposition,
or allowing a political circus to happen around the tragedy.
'FASTEN YOUR SEAT BELTS, LULA IS NOWHERE TO BE SEEN'
It was clearly a pool of accusations…
NO WORDS
…to implicate
or blame President Lula directly for the crash.
THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY SAYS, "LULA OUT!"
Journalists crossed the line of what was reasonable.
I WOULD GREATLY APPRECIATE A HEADLINE THAT READS, IN ALL CAPS,
"GOVERNMENT KILLS OVER 200 PEOPLE."
Lula only spoke on TV three days after the crash.
The Air Force has already started the investigations.
PRESIDENT OF BRAZIL
On my orders, the Federal Police are also working on the case.
Every hypothesis will be considered.
We must never condemn or acquit anyone
based on hasty opinions.
THAT SAME WEEK, INFRAERO RELEASED THE VIDEO FOOTAGE OF THE RUNWAY
And I think that, up until the release of the video by Infraero,
it was an onslaught of accusations, an onslaught of slander.
LULA AND HIS CRONIES KILL PEOPLE SCOT-FREE
Justice!
That video was part of the investigation.
It would remain confidential for a long time.
Releasing it wasn't regular procedure.
The video played a crucial role in restoring
the attention, focus, and analysis
to the real issue at hand.
The first part of the video shows a regular landing
ten minutes before the crash.
Even with the wet runway, the TAM airplane takes 15 seconds
to cross the whole screen.
Now watch flight 3054's landing.
It took only three seconds to cover the same length.
The Infraero video
shows that regardless of the runway or the grooving conditions,
the speed at which the plane crossed the screen
would make it impossible for it to stop where it was supposed to.
"A CRASH IS A PAINFUL CRY FROM A SICK SYSTEM," SAYS FORMER PILOT
Let's not forget that this crash also occurred
at the same time two investigations on the Aviation Blackout were underway.
The opposition wants to investigate the cause of so many delays recently
at Brazilian airports,
the so-called Aviation Blackout.
4 YEARS BEFORE THE ACCIDENT
It was the first time Brazil had a working-class president.
And Lula took over with a significant social policy,
plus the accounts more or less balanced,
an economic rationality,
and a boom in commodities.
And so Brazil made a lot of money.
We're talking iron ore, oil, soybeans, cattle, everything.
The growth skyrocketed.
The GDP growth forecast rose to 5.12%.
It was the biggest increase since 1996.
I want it to grow more and continuously.
The São Paulo Stock Exchange has broken record after record.
Rio de Janeiro!
Brazil has entered a new phase in its history.
Brazil was rising in the eyes of the world.
There's a significant increase in consumption,
because the country is growing.
There were good programs to lift people out of poverty.
I see that we're able to afford better clothes,
better shoes, better food, better outings, a better life.
SOUTH - NORTHEAST ECOTOURISM - JULY VACATIONS
10 INSTALLMENTS INTERNATIONAL PACKAGES
And of course the airlines rode this wave
of growth in purchasing power.
In the last few years, everybody would go to Natal.
There's always some money left for a trip.
Is there anything that brings more joy than going on a vacation?
Imagine the people who had never been on a plane.
It transformed the social class structure.
"Mere mortals" were now having access to it.
It was more accessible.
Domestic workers, for instance,
angered some politicians because they started traveling to Miami.
Before 2003, we transported 30 million passengers per year.
It went up to 100 million, tripling the volume of flights in Brazil.
On that same wave, Gol Airlines also grew a lot.
It was based on an American idea, the low-cost airline model.
A budget carrier.
Now flight attendants won't have to be in fancy uniforms.
They can wear polo shirts or T-shirts.
And none of that nonsense of onboard service either.
Just give them a cereal bar, and that's enough.
As someone from the field of aviation, I followed this closely.
Aviation was undergoing a complete change.
So we had the creation of Gol, TAM on the rise,
and the other three traditional airlines going into decline.
Together, TAM and Gol currently hold 92%
of the country's air passenger transport.
But the physical infrastructure of airports didn't change.
They began to struggle.
The volume of traffic at the country's main airports
is getting more and more intense.
With people having more income, you start selling more tickets.
The infrastructure did not keep up with this growth.
Brazil was growing, but could airports accommodate that?
Did they have flight controllers, technical staff, mechanics?
They didn't.
Things got complicated.
Look at that queue.
I think this has become worse than bus stations.
It's like a bus station. We choose to fly because we want fast transportation.
Airlines sold more tickets than the capacity of the aircraft.
They were overbooking.
This first issue of too many passengers,
few airplanes, and poor infrastructure was for ANAC to solve.
ANAC NATIONAL CIVIL AVIATION AGENCY
ESTABLISHED IN 2005
2 YEARS BEFORE THE ACCIDENT
It was a newly established agency,
just starting to define its mission.
Not sure of what to regulate.
And to make the nightmare even worse,
the two most serious crashes in Brazilian aviation history occurred.
SEPTEMBER 29TH, 2006
10 MONTHS BEFORE THE ACCIDENT IN CONGONHAS
Flight 1907 departed from Manaus yesterday at 3:35 p.m.,
with a layover in Brasília,
before reaching Rio de Janeiro, its final destination.
When flying over the Cachimbo Range, in southern Pará,
the aircraft collided in midair with the Legacy jet,
manufactured by Embraer.
The Legacy managed to land at the Cachimbo Range Air Base, in Pará.
But the Boeing 737-800 disappeared from radars.
NO ONE SURVIVED - 155 DEAD 10 MONTHS BEFORE THE ACCIDENT IN CONGONHAS
DEADLIEST AVIATION CRASH IN BRAZIL
The hardest part for the family, and I say this is in a general context,
is being unable to go to the crash site.
Because they are in denial.
They think, "If I can't see it, why would I believe they died?"
We demand explanations!
Family members threatened to storm the Infraero administration office
at the Brasília Airport.
-The truth! -They only care to tell the media first!
The grieving family is what matters!
In this accident, we also meet, in a more blatant way,
a new character called Denise Abreu.
Indeed.
My God, yes.
They could finally enter,
being attended to by the director of ANAC, Denise Abreu.
Before speaking to the families, she spoke to journalists.
It was a Gol flight which, unfortunately,
collided with another aircraft,
which led to the traumatic, drastic, and terrifying crash
that we are dealing with.
THE DISASTER
Denise Abreu was having dinner
when she was informed that a plane had disappeared.
What really caught my attention in my interview with her
was what she said she had stated.
"Darling, planes don't disappear."
"Planes crash."
Right now, there's absolutely no way of affirming whether there are survivors.
TO THE VICTIMS' FAMILIES,
"YOU PEOPLE ARE SMART."
"THE PLANE CRASHED FROM 36,000 FEET. WHAT DID YOU EXPECT? BODIES?"
She denied ever saying that.
I mean, there's no excuse.
That was zero empathy.
And she's very harsh.
When I asked her about showing more compassion,
she said, "Government employees don't need to be empathetic."
"They need to be intelligent."
She stresses certain words a lot.
Effectively, there is a near-zero possibility of that happening.
So this animosity started brewing amidst that chaos.
Her credibility was questioned from the outset.
What is that person doing there?
She knew nothing about airspace and the aviation industry.
She met with Gol's CEO,
"They're opening an agency called ANAC, and you should join."
"We'll put a word in for you then."
How do you set up an aviation agency like that?
"You should join."
ANAC's board of directors is considered inexperienced in aviation.
The names were approved by the Senate.
And as a coincidence,
all this horror happened as she entered the scene.
So it was easy to create an image of her that was awful, terrible, horrendous.
And it didn't end there.
Denise Abreu started with flight 1907 and kept going until flight 3054.
GOL ACCIDENT
The main question remains without a definite answer.
Who's to blame for the Gol crash?
The Federal Police asked the Air Force
to investigate the flight controllers that monitored Gol's Boeing.
As they attempted to place the blame on the flight controllers, chaos ensued.
OCT 2006 09 MONTHS BEFORE THE ACCIDENT
At almost every airport in the country, the same scene.
Crowded lounges and planes parked on the runway.
In Congonhas, the busiest airport in Latin America,
chaos started early with 160 delayed flights.
It's total chaos in Brazilian aviation today.
The Air Force stated that the issue was aggravated
because the flight controllers worked to rule.
Flight controllers decided not to work over capacity anymore.
The Air Force commander admitted that each flight controller
worked with more than 14 planes,
which is the limit established by international convention.
A kind of operational restriction.
We spent a lot of time sitting and waiting for authorization to take off.
A plane that didn't leave Salvador won't get to Rio.
Passengers waiting to board in Rio will continue to gather there.
Then it snowballs.
In Curitiba, long lines, and planes parked on the runway.
Disruptions in Florianópolis as well.
At least 10,000 people weren't able to board.
Lots of yelling at the airport. There were no planes.
Past security, where you can't go, there are lots of children on the floor.
People were sleeping at the airport.
When will I get my luggage?
-I want my luggage! -The luggage!
I've been at this airport for two days.
The Minister of Tourism, who in a momentary lapse of judgment
suggested that passengers relax amid the chaos, is nowhere to be seen.
Lean back and relax. You'll forget all your troubles.
Musician Jards Macalé played a little at the airport to ease the wait.
Then it became chaos, properly speaking.
Air chaos at the airports, especially Congonhas, Guarulhos.
Half a dozen air traffic controllers cannot stop the country.
I'm on vacation.
You don't go on a trip just to come back feeling worse than before.
It was a joke.
Passengers protested in the kilometer-long boarding queue
at Guarulhos International Airport.
We expect the flow over Carnaval season to be good.
Air traffic controllers beg to differ.
There will be another work-to-rule
to demand the demilitarization of the career,
increase in wages, and reduced working hours.
This flight controller blows the whistle.
"Controllers have long worked to the limit of exhaustion and wiseness."
He accuses the Air Force of putting flight safety at risk.
The controllers started to feel a little pressured,
because although their claim was fair,
it really messed up people's lives.
President Lula isn't happy about it either.
I want a specific date and time
for us to announce that there'll be no more issues at our airports.
It's been going on for over six months.
Brazil tries to move on. No one knows anything.
So they find themselves having to pick one
between two undesirable solutions.
MARCH 30TH, 2007 THREE MONTHS BEFORE THE ACCIDENT
I was in Brasilia that day.
We asked for authorization
to start the engines,
but no one responded anymore.
Dead silence.
Next to me, there were another four or five planes,
and we started talking on the radio.
-"Startup approved?" -"No."
-"Me neither." -"Same."
"What do we do?"
On that specific day,
no aircraft was allowed to take off.
AIR MUTINY BRINGS BRAZIL TO A HALT
A part of the flight controllers
was made up of military sergeants from the Air Force,
who by definition could not go on strike.
The impact this had was absurd.
Right from the get-go, you could see planes grounded everywhere.
They couldn't take off.
The strike suspended landing and takeoff operations across the country,
affecting over 18,000 people.
The whole thing just goes, "Boom!"
-Out with Lula! -Enough! Let's fight back!
The effect was instant.
The country's main airports shut down.
I demand respect!
I'm Brazilian, I'm old, and I'm tired!
Passengers got angry, and we got on the plane.
The police were called to contain the riot.
Let's try to solve this the best way possible.
A group of professionals held the country hostage.
And by that, I mean the entire country.
Because your hands are tied for the most basic things.
This man who underwent a liver transplant
had to spend the night at the airport waiting for a flight.
President Lula emphasized that the country will no longer accept
the out-of-control flight controllers.
Meanwhile, we have Denise Abreu at ANAC gaining prominence.
During all the confusion of the aviation chaos,
on the day air traffic controllers were going on strike,
because they were done with it, she goes to a wedding.
ANAC DIRECTOR ADVISED TO POSTPONE HIS DAUGHTER'S WEDDING
DESPAIR AT AIRPORTS, DANCING AT THE "BLACKOUT PARTY"
WHILE PASSENGERS COULDN'T BOARD ON FRIDAY,
ANAC DIRECTORS PARTY
Great! In the middle of this huge crisis,
they all go to this wedding in Bahia.
They give her a cigar to celebrate the wedding.
And she's photographed smoking it.
DENISE UNDER HEAT!
DESPAIR AT AIRPORTS, DANCING AT THE "BLACKOUT PARTY"
I guess what stood out
was the fact that it was a woman smoking a cigar.
A little misogynistic, I'd say.
As if she were the only person enjoying the party.
CRYING AND PARTYING: TWO FACETS OF THE BLACKOUT
Under those tense circumstances,
the cigar became a symbol of something.
ANAC IS SYMBOL OF CHAOS IN A RUDIMENTARY AND OUT-OF-CONTROL SYSTEM
ANARC: INSTEAD OF PROTECTING PASSENGERS, ANAC FEEDS THE ANARCHY IN THE SECTOR
MARCH 31ST, 2007
JULY 17TH, 2007
JULY 20TH, 2007
3 DAYS AFTER THE ACCIDENT
ANAC DIRECTORS RECEIVE AWARDS 3 DAYS AFTER THE TRAGEDY AT CONGONHAS
They awarded them right after that.
THEY EVEN GOT MEDALS
Only days later, they gave them awards, even to the ANAC director.
That was revolting to us.
The Santos Dumont Medal for outstanding services rendered.
We were living an aviation nightmare while they were receiving awards.
It was a real horror show for us.
FEDERAL PROSECUTION OFFICE CALLS FOR CONGONHAS TO BE CLOSED
IN JANUARY, THOSE PROSECUTORS FILED THE SAME PETITION
THE REASON: CONSTANT SKIDDING CAUSED BY INEFFICIENT DRAINAGE SYSTEM.
ANAC went and pushed to open an airport that wasn't fit to operate.
-Was Denise to blame? -Yes.
Judge Cecília Marcondes claimed she was deceived by the ANAC director.
She lied to a judge.
For the Congonhas runway to be allowed to operate,
Denise Abreu presented a document with no legal value.
In a statement, Denise Abreu denies the accusations.
I don't smoke cigars.
The ANAC director will testify at the Senate's inquiry on the blackout.
-Yes. -Look at my son.
-How did you let this happen? -I didn't.
For the families, she was the reason for their anger.
It's impossible for a legal director, who just signs documents,
to have any responsibility for an aircraft crash.
It is unfair.
Lula also criticized Denise Abreu.
There is absolutely no evidence of anything against me.
The most famous director in the history of ANAC.
ANAC's director, Denise Abreu…
Head of ANAC, Denise Abreu.
There's a whole group of people responsible.
It was her responsibility.
Denise,
as you know, many family members see you as one of those responsible.
If you could say something to these families, what would it be?
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