Jet lands safely after door falls off (Reuters) Updated: 2006-08-11 10:35
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil - A jet owned by leading Brazilian airline TAM
landed safely on Tuesday after one of its doors fell off and crashed to earth
next to a supermarket shortly after departure from Sao Paulo.
No one was hurt in the incident, a TAM spokeswoman said. The Fokker 100 plane
with 79 people aboard en route to Rio de Janeiro returned to the airport safely
18 minutes after taking off.
TAM has been replacing its Fokker planes since the Dutch aircraft maker went
bankrupt 10 years ago. It still has 22, but expects to gradually eliminate all
of them by 2010.
The same type of plane, also operated by TAM, caused one of Brazil's worst
air disasters in 1996. It crashed in an urban area shortly after taking off from
Sao Paulo, killing about 100 people, including some on the ground.
In 1997, an explosion of undetermined origin killed a
passenger who was blown out of a TAM Fokker 100 during flight. In 2001 an engine
breakup on a TAM Fokker 100 caused two cabin windows to shatter and one of 82
passengers aboard died as a result of the depressurization.
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