737 missing over Brazil

[rchcfi]

The banner on CNN's website is saying that a 737 is missing over Brazil. But there is no story along with it. Anyone have any details?

 

[satpak77]

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/americas/09/29/brazil.plane.reut/index.html


http://gazetaonline.globo.com/notic...ional_materia.php?cd_matia=221707&cd_site=843


appears to have hit a EMB Legacy jet, according to the news.

also

http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?t=246031

 

[navigator72]

God bless

 

[Coool Hand Luke]

SAO PAULO, Brazil (Reuters) -- Brazilian airline Gol said Friday it was
trying to locate a passenger plane that disappeared from radar and failed to arrive
at its destination.

The head of Brazil's airports authority, Infraero, said the Gol plane
collided with a smaller aircraft in the Amazon region, the Globo news agency
reported.

The smaller plane, an executive jet, landed with a damaged wing, Globo
reported.

Gol flight 1907 left Manaus in the afternoon but did not arrive in Brasilia
as scheduled, a spokesman for the Manaus airport said.

The company said the flight had 155 passengers on board but made no mention
of crew members. Brazil's civil aviation authority said the plane was
transporting 155 people.

Copyright 2006 Reuters

 

[Rally]

People asked about TCAS on pprune. IF this was a non radar enviroment even if both A/C had their transponders on correct me if I am wrong TCAS does'nt work because it gets it info from the radar facility?

 

[NuGuy]

People asked about TCAS on pprune. IF this was a non radar enviroment even if both A/C had their transponders on correct me if I am wrong TCAS does'nt work because it gets it info from the radar facility?

Not true. TCAS II can operate in a "wisper-shout" mode. If there is plenty of secondary radar inquiring aircraft in the area, TCAS operates in a low power mode. However, if there is little or no secondary radar activity, it ramps up the power to interrogate the local area. TCAS IS an active system and will work without secondary radar. But to see anything, responding aircraft MUST have an operating mode C transponder (only mode A will show a target, but with no altitude info), and the transponder MUST be turned on.

Some of the low cost "TCAD" systems that you see in GA aircraft these days are passive only, meaning that they require a ground facility to trigger interrogation. There is also the "traffic infomation system" or TIS, which is an entirely different sort of system (traffic info datalinked from ground stations).

Nu

 

[positiveg]

Based on the list of passengers, I was able to go to the Brazilian version of Myspace (Orkut) and check who some of the passengers are. According to someone that was supposedly family of one of the victms, there are survivors. I don't know if this is just speculation or if it's inside info that the airline told the families but haven't been published yet.

 

[positiveg]

Infraero has just stated they have recieved info that there are survivors, althought not how many.

 

[Metro752]

go go brasilian connection

 

[satpak77]

If there are survivors, lets pray for them. Altho I would be highly skeptical. First, the plane, if it even "landed" in a controlled attitude, landed in 20 foot tree-ed rain forest, at night. There are over 20 species of ants (ants alone) in the rain forest. Along with monkeys, tigers, etc.

So I question the survivability of any "landing" in the rain forest by a 737. A Cessna, pancake it in, maybe. A 737? Doubt it.

Another note, how are the "survivors" getting word out? Via cell phone? Etc? It is highly unlikely the SAR teams can physically penetrate and see down to observe people walking around.

SAR Helicopters? They would have to launch from a major city, and get fuel along the way, then only be on station for XXX minutes. Fuel bladdres for a make-shift refuel station would need to be set up. Etc etc

SAR capablity in South America is pretty sucky except in Chile or Colombia, both countries that have fairly competent military teams and SAR network.

I have personally flown over that area many times. It is NOT a place to have bad luck in.

Survivors - lets hope so