Panair do Brasil Flight 099

Panair do Brasil Flight 099 was a flight that suffered a serious air accident on 28 July 1950.

Accident

Panair do Brasil flight 099 took off from Galeão Air Base at 15:47, six hours before the scheduled departure time, due to a defect in one of the aircraft's engines, which had to be replaced and tested on an inspection flight. The landing was to take place at Canoas Air Base (at that time called Gravataí Air Base) on the outskirts of Porto Alegre, at 18:40.

The Constellation with prefix PP-PCG was carrying 44 passengers (many of whom had been on holiday in Rio de Janeiro, which had hosted the 1950 World Cup) and 6 crew members, being piloted by Captain Eduardo Martins de Oliveira (about to complete 10 thousand flight hours in his career, he was known as Commander Edu, one of the founders and standard-bearer of the famous Clube dos Cafajestes).

According to the weather reports, there was a stationary cold front between Porto Alegre and Florianópolis, which caused heavy turbulence and light rain in the capital of Rio Grande do Sul.

After some delay en route, caused by the unfavourable weather conditions, the Constellation began approach procedures to land at Canoas Air Base at 6:45 p.m. The landing, however, was aborted, followed by a dash. During the second landing attempt, contact with the tower was lost, followed by a new run. In the sequence, the Constellation crashed into Morro do Chapéu (currently located between the municipalities of Gravataí and Sapucaia do Sul), at around 19:25, exploding shortly afterwards.

With the explosion, a fire broke out in the area, only two hours later.

Due to the difficult access to the area, the rescue teams took two hours to reach the wreckage, when they found the death of all the crew and passengers The work of removing the bodies and clearing the area, commanded by the then Colonel Olímpio Mourão Filho, took several days, due to the extent of the area over which the wreckage was spread.