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Translation: From Portuguese into English
Brazilian Newspaper: JORNAL DO COMÉRCIO
Date: 10/22/2007
Page: 28 – General
Porto Alegre, RS
Tam Crash
FAMILIES REMEMBER THE VICTIMS OF FLIGHT 3054
It’s Been Three Months Since the Biggest Tragedy in Brazilian Aviation
[Approximately 100 people participated in a protest in the capital]
“No one is here for bureaucratic reasons. Everyone remembers very well what happened and that there is someone missing in the family”. The sorrowful statement from business consulting agent Christophe Haddad, 42, is justifiable by the pain of his loss. His daughter Rebecca, 14, is one of the 199 victims of TAM Flight 3054, which occurred on July 17.
Haddad and a hundred more people, who have lost relatives and friends, got together this weekend to analyze the development of ongoing investigations. In addition, they carried out protests at Parque da Redenção [Redemption Park] and at Salgado Filho airport, where they spread hearts with the names of their children over a white cross and prayed.
“There are many things that haven’t been explained. We want to know how flight-worthy that airplane was. If it had problems, TAM made a mistake even before allowing it to fly. In addition, it is evident that the conditions of the runway in Congonhas were not adequate,” he said.
The fear of the families is that their situation won’t be resolved. Their preoccupation, however, is not limited to the accident for which they lost their family members, but with the national aviation chaos. So much so that they had a t-shirt made on which it is written “353”, a reference to the sum of the victims of this year’s tragedy with the ones from Gol’s plane in 2006.
EXPENSES WITH PLANE TICKETS ARE HIGHER THAN AMOUNTS CHARGED
The meeting on Saturday was the third one with families of victims – the first in Porto Alegre, from where the flight departed. Previously, they had promoted two meetings in São Paulo. According to Haddad, all expenses are paid by TAM – from their trips between the two capitals to locations where the meetings are held.
“The airline has been announcing they’ve spend millions with this. It is a high number and I wonder how come they reached that number. So, one of the family members asked for the invoice for the ticket. The amount was R$ 5,000 [approximately US$ 2,800]”, he affirms. Rebecca’s father said that, in spite of everything, his goal is not to ask for an specific punishment for TAM. “What we want is to find out who is the culprit. We don’t want to harass anyone. We want justice.”
ATTORNEY AFFIRMS THAT AIRBUS WAS NEGLIGENT
The North-American law firm Motley Rice, which is representing the interests of five Brazilian families in the USA judicial system, announced yesterday new information about Flight JJ3054 case. They refer especially to the negligence of Airbus, maker of the plane involved in the accident, which, according to the law firm, was aware of the problems with the aircraft’s equipment.
“The fact that there were three previous accidents supports the theory that Airbus, TAM and other companies must be held accountable, because they did nothing to prevent this”, said attorney Don Migliori.
He mentions details that he considers important. Among them, the fact that Airbus had implemented a new technology with the A320 and not all pilots understood it.
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