Overcrowding
in Brazilian Plane Crash
Rio de Janeiro - The owner of a plane that crashed last
Saturday in an Amazon jungle river, killing 24 people, had
previously been accused of overloading his aircraft, the local daily
O Globo reported Wednesday.
The airline company, Manaus Aerotaxi, also had been accused of
performing poor maintenance on its aircraft, the newspaper reported.
One of the company's planes crashed in an Amazon river Saturday,
killing 24 people among its 26 passengers and two pilots. The
plane's listed capacity was only 19 passengers plus the pilots.
According to survivors, there were seven children who were traveling
on their parents' laps though Brazilian aviation rules require
children over 2 years old to have their own seats.
Jorge Negreiros, who heads the local Air Service Workers Union
Trade, said the pilot of the crashed plane was one of the pilots who
last year had accused Manaus Aerotaxi of overcrowding its aircraft.
Negreiros said his organization has received about 300 accusations
of irregularities against the air-taxi companies that operate in the
Amazon Rainforest.
The organization saw pilots as being responsible for the number of
passengers aboard a plane but Negreiros said it is the owners who
determine that number and there is no supervision to assure the
rules are obeyed.
The Brazilian Air Force's Center for the Investigation and
Prevention of Aeronautical Accidents (Cenipa) is investigating the
circumstances of the accident.
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