MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Damaged cargo aircraft exposes vulnerability of Brazil’s airports’ system
The Centurion Cargo plane stuck in the runway Brazil’s poor infrastructure was again confirmed over the weekend at one of Sao Paulo international airports, Viracopos, when a damaged cargo aircraft blocked activities forcing 450 flight cancellations and overloading the already saturated capacity of other air terminals.
“The airport is with the main runway blocked since Saturday, when the cargo plane had the accident. We’re waiting for the right equipments to arrive so we can remove the aircraft”, said on Sunday the government agency responsible for the airports Infraero.
A plane from US-based Centurion Cargo blew a tire upon landing at the only runway late Saturday. Special equipment is needed to move the massive jet off the runway.
Adding to the mess is the check-in system at Tam Airlines, Brazil's biggest. It was down for hours Monday morning, causing more delays.
Viracopos is considered the third most important air terminal in Sao Paulo, Brazil’s industrial and financial hub, and the second major cargo airport in the country.
Early Monday there were long queues waiting for the delayed flights. International flights to Argentina and Portugal has also to be cancelled said Infraero. Viracopos also is the main hub for Azul which represents 85% of flights.
The delays in Viracopos are also having an impact in other regional airports which are also operating at maximum capacity.
Brazil's airports are under scrutiny as the nation prepares to host the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympics. The nation has promised to make quick advances in airport capacity and efficiency.
Top Comments
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Read all commentsWell Mercopruts, if you did some “web based” research, you would not publish a bad (copy paste ) article that Viracopos is in Sao Paulo.
Oct 15th, 2012 - 10:43 pm 0Viracopos, Campinas, Sao Paulo STATE.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viracopos-Campinas_International_Airport
@1 Fido Dildo
Oct 16th, 2012 - 03:14 pm 0So your post invalidates the article, that Brasil has infrastructure problems, does it?
Heavy jets (or any other plane in reality) with blown tyres are not unknown, especially on cargo planes.
Without knowing the extent of the damage it does seem a lamentable oversight by the airport authorities not to have reasonable access to the necessary lifting equipment. If the leg also collapsed it does mean other equipment would be required to lift the plane without damaging it or risking a fire.
Perhaps the airport authorities should ask Britain for assistance in overcoming future problems of this nature and education in risk management.
The evidence (it has happened) would suggest they need help.
Chris@2
Oct 17th, 2012 - 07:25 pm 0That’s a fact: most of our airports lack the most basic infrastructure
and, even if they didn’t, removing a fully loaded cargo aircraft is no easy job anywhere.
Besides, the removal is the airline’s responsibility.
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