TAM Airlines Flight 3054

TAM Airlines Flight 3054 was a regularly scheduled domestic passenger flight operated by TAM Airlines from Porto Alegre to São Paulo, Brazil. On the evening of 17 July 2007, the Airbus A320 serving the flight from Porto Alegre overran runway 35L at São Paulo's Congonhas Airport after touching down during moderate rain and crashed into a nearby TAM Express warehouse adjacent to a gas station. The aircraft exploded on impact, killing all 187 passengers and crew on board, as well as 12 people on the ground. An additional 27 people in the warehouse were injured. The accident remains the deadliest aviation disaster in Brazilian and South American history, and was the deadliest involving the Airbus A320 series until the bombing of Metrojet Flight 9268 in 2015 killing 224 people. It was the last major fatal aviation accident in Brazil until 2024, when Voepass Linhas Aéreas Flight 2283 crashed near São Paulo killing 62 people.

The accident was investigated by the Brazilian Air Force's Aeronautical Accidents Investigation and Prevention Center (Centro de Investigação e Prevenção de Acidentes Aeronáuticos; CENIPA), and a final report was issued in September 2009. CENIPA concluded that the accident was caused by pilot error during the landing at São Paulo.

Flight chronology

Several players and coaches from the Grêmio football club were initially booked on Flight 3054, intending to catch a connecting flight in Congonhas and fly to Goiânia, for a game scheduled against the Goiás Esporte Clube. However, the club's management rescheduled the trip to the next day. The plane departed from Salgado Filho International Airport in Porto Alegre at 17:18 Brazilian Standard Time (BRT) (20:18 UTC). It climbed to flight level (FL) 340 (34000 ft). At 18:48 BRT (21:48 UTC), the flight made its landing at Congonhas-São Paulo Regional Airport.

Accident

Flight 3054 was cleared to land at Congonhas's Runway 35L. Reviews by government officials of the surveillance videos showed that despite the aircraft touching down without incident, it did not slow down normally, veering to the left as it departed the far end at around 90 kn. The runway is elevated above the surrounding area, and the aircraft's momentum carried it over traffic on the adjacent Avenida Washington Luís, a major thoroughfare, and crushed a four-storey TAM Express facility, resulting in a large fire. The TAM Express facility contained offices and a warehouse, and was located adjacent to a gas station, killing all 181 passengers and 6 crew members on board as well as 12 people on the ground. Inside the plane the temperature reached over 1000 C, leaving no chance of survival.

The runway had recently been resurfaced, and did not yet have water-channeling grooves cut into it to reduce the danger of hydroplaning.

The aircraft's flight data recorder (FDR) showed that immediately prior to touchdown, both thrust levers were in CL (or "climb") position, with engine power being governed by the flight computer's autothrottle system. Two seconds prior to touchdown, an aural warning, "retard, retard", was issued by the flight's computer system, advising the pilots to retard the thrust lever to the recommended idle lever position. This would disengage the autothrottle, with engine power then governed directly by the thrust levers.

At the moment of touchdown, the spoiler lever was in the "ARMED" position. According to the system logic of the A320's flight controls, in order for the spoilers to automatically deploy upon touchdown, not only must the spoiler lever be in the "ARMED" position, but both thrust levers must be at or close to the "idle" position. The FDR transcript shows that immediately after the warning, the flight computer recorded the left thrust lever being retarded to the rear-most position, activating the thrust reverser on the left engine, while the right thrust lever (controlling the engine with the disabled thrust reverser) remained in the CL position. One theory put forth by CENIPA is that the pilots may not have noticed that the right engine remained at CL because the Airbus autothrottle system, unlike other aircraft manufacturers, does not automatically move the levers when the autothrust controller changes engine settings. Therefore, the pilots may have thought that the right engine was at idle power without realizing that Airbus autothrust logic dictates that, when one or more of the thrust levers is pulled to the idle position, the autothrust is automatically disengaged. Thus, when the pilot pulled the left engine thrust lever to idle, it disconnected the autothrust system and the computer did not retard the right engine power to idle. The A320's spoilers did not deploy during the landing run, as the right thrust lever was above the "idle" setting required for automatic spoiler deployment. Since the right engine thrust lever was still in the "climb" detent at that time, the right engine accelerated to climb power while the left engine deployed its thrust reverser. The resulting asymmetric thrust condition resulted in a loss of control and it veered to the left and a crash ensued. It only took 16 seconds from the incorrect positioning of the thrust levers to overrunning the runway with an ensuing loss of control, and 26 seconds until the aircraft crashed.