TAM Transportes Aéreos Regionais Flight 283
Fokker 100 · Bomb explosion on board
From Eurico de Aguiar Salles International Airport (VIX) to Congonhas–Deputado Freitas Nobre Airport (CGH)
Event
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- Event fatalities
- 1 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- 60
- Survivors
- 59
- InjuriesFatal: death within 30 days. Serious: over 48 hours in hospital within a week, most broken bones, severe bleeding, nerve or organ damage, or serious burns. Minor: anything less. Glossary
- 6
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- Airline
Fokker 100
- Flight
- JJ283
- Aircraft type
- Fokker 100
- Category
- Airplane · from aircraft type
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- PT-WHK
- Operator
- TAM Transportes Aéreos Regionais
- Onboard fatalities
- 1
- Route
- From Eurico de Aguiar Salles International Airport (VIX)To Congonhas–Deputado Freitas Nobre Airport (CGH)
Approximate · Coordinates from the Wikipedia article; not checked against an investigation report.
From the Wikipedia article
TAM Transportes Aéreos Regionais Flight 283 was a domestic Fokker 100 flying in Brazil from Eurico de Aguiar Salles Airport to São Paulo–Congonhas Airport, with a stopover in São José dos Campos Airport. On 9 July, 1997, a bomb explosion blew a hole in the aircraft fuselage, ejecting a passenger out of the plane. After the explosion the crew managed to perform a safe emergency landing at São Paulo–Congonhas Airport.
No one was ever sentenced for the attack.
Accident
The aircraft was scheduled to do a domestic flight from Eurico de Aguiar Salles Airport to São Paulo–Congonhas Airport, with an intermediate stopover in São José dos Campos Airport. The plane took off from Eurico de Aguiar Salles Airport at around 6:55 am local time, the first leg of the flight went uneventful. At around 8:30 am the aircraft departed São José dos Campos for the final leg of the flight to Congonhas Airport. As the aircraft was climbing through flight level FL080, at 8:48 am, a bomb planted underneath seat 18D exploded, ripping a 2x2 meters in size and 30 centimeters deep hole through the fuselage.
Fernando Moura, seated on seat 18E, the one placed next to where the bomb exploded, was sucked out of the aircraft and killed after he fell into a field located near the Tijuco Preto neighbourhood. The body of Moura was found by a local farmer, who soon contacted the police. Fragments of the aircraft fuselage were also spread in a radius of about 300 meters around the point where the explosion occurred.
A few minutes after the detonation of the bomb the crew of Flight 283, which initially thought that the depressurization of the cabin was caused by the mid-air opening of a cargo door, contacted the Congonhas Airport's ATC to inform them that they were going to make an emergency landing. The aircraft landed safely at Congonhas Airport at around 9:05 am. After de-boarding the other six injured people, five passengers and a flight attendant, were taken to the Jabaquara emergency room and to the Sao Paulo hospital to be treated for minor injuries.
Investigation and cause
Investigation
The hypothesis of a bombing was quickly taken into consideration after the survivors reported a burning smell on board, and chemical residues were found around the hole in the fuselage; so the Federal Police of Brazil started a 90 day investigation into the occurrence. Ground witnesses, including the farmer that found Moura's body, also reported hearing sounds similar to an explosion while the accident occurred. Fuselage and cabin fragments of the aircraft were taken to Congonhas Airport for analyses and traces of gunpowder were found.
After the investigation the Federal Police of Brazil and the Public Prosecutor's Office declared that the main suspect as the attacker was professor Leonardo Teodoro de Castro, which was suspected to have built and planted the improvised bomb.
But just three days after the release of this information de Castro was run over by a bus and left in a coma-like state, and because of this his trial was suspended. After almost a year of medical care de Castro remained in a state of near dementia. Until 2009, he had to submit to a mental acuity test designed to evaluate whether he would be able to be judged. de Castro lives with a sister in Divinopolis, Minas Gerais. In 2021, 24 years after the bombing, a federal judge declared that de Castro could not be punished, due to his health issues.
Text from the Wikipedia article “TAM Transportes Aéreos Regionais Flight 283” (revision 1370649690, retrieved 2026-09-18) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out. Read the article
Sources
Wikipedia article: TAM Transportes Aéreos Regionais Flight 283
- Revision
- 1370649690 · 2026-08-22 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q48861082
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
Where each value comes from
- Record
- Wikipedia article "TAM Transportes Aéreos Regionais Flight 283" (page 81233237, revision 1370649690)
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- Wikipedia article coordinates
- Aircraft, operator and route
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft type, registration, operator, origin and destination; route airports from the linked airport articles' Wikidata codes (OurAirports)
- Operation
- airline flight number in the infobox
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities
- Ground fatalities
- not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
- Summary
- Wikipedia infobox: summary
Source notes (1)
- Wikipedia · Facts from the Wikipedia article's infobox and coordinates, not checked against an investigation report. Independent review pending.