Mourners and air safety activists throng crash site

Sao Paulo: Thousands of Brazilians travelled to the site of the nation's deadliest air disaster on Sunday, staring at the charred remnants of a damaged air cargo building, praying and protesting against the failures of their country's aviation safety system.

Some mourners placed flowers on a fence above the highway that TAM Flight 3054 sped over before hitting the building and a gas station on July 17.

All 187 people aboard and at least four on the ground died. It was the deadliest commercial air accident in Brazil's history, a position previously held by a crash in the Amazon just 10 months before that killed 154.

The latest disaster again focussed popular anger at the government's inability to fix an aviation system that in the past year has also suffered strikes, radar failures and delays.

Juan Pedro Medeiros and Leticia Volasco held a sign with just one word: "Basta," meaning enough. The two did not know anyone on the plane, but decided during breakfast that they had to protest air safety problems.

"It's time to say we've had enough of this," said Volasco, a 38-year-old lawyer. "We're just tired of the impunity, we want to know who caused this and why and have them punished."

Though the Congonhas airport runway has been widely criticised, officials insist it was not to blame. The plane's right reverse thruster was also deactivated, but TAM said that was not a safety threat. An investigation into the crash could take months.

Overuse

After the Sao Paulo crash, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva suggested that Congonhas is used beyond capacity and that South America's largest city needs a third airport.

Graffiti on a wall just beneath the runway's edge said "Brazil is in mourning. Close Congonhas!"

On highway overpasses throughout the city, banners read, "Justice for the Flight 3054 Crime!" Earlier, on Sunday, more than 2,000 people packed Sao Paulo's cathedral in a Mass for those who died in the crash.

Relatives arrived wearing white T-shirts with pictures of the victims, sobbing and holding each other. Marcelo Gomes tried to console his sister, whose daughters, ages 14 and 10, both died.

"It's disgusting," he said. "My sister lost two children because of problems the government has known about for ages."

Outside the cathedral, retired Brazilian airline flight attendant Amaury Guedes wore a skeleton costume and held up a sign with a jet emblazoned on it and the words: "Tragedy foretold."