Pilots unable to slow down in Brazil plane crash

0 Comments | AFP, August, 2007

BRASILIA (AFP) — Pilots in Brazil's worst plane crash last month panicked, crying "Oh my God!, Oh my God!" as they desperately tried to slow down their jetliner on landing, according to transcripts from the plane's cockpit recorder released Wednesday.

The Airbus 320 belonging to Brazil's TAM airlines had a thrust reverser and its spoilers inoperable when it landed at Sao Paulo's Congonhas airport on July 17.

"Come on! Come on! Turn, turn, turn, turn!" cried the co-pilot moments before a final utterance, "Oh no!," was heard. Then the tape goes blank as the jetliner slams into a cargo building at 220 kilometers per hour (137 mph) and explodes.

All 187 people aboard the plane were killed, along with at least 12 people on the ground.

The transcript from...