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The flames from Brazil's worst plane crash were contained around dawn today, but the smell of smoke and death wafted over travellers at Sao Paulo's airport as a reminder of disaster.
"It took four or five hours to reach the plane," medical examiner Douglas Ferrari said. "When we
arrived, it was as expected - not one trace of life and only some bodies would have the slightest chance of being identified."
Clouds of grey smoke from the crash site just across from the airport added a haze to the blustery day in Sao Paulo, South America's largest city.
Rescue workers in masks sifted through the mangled Airbus A320 and a crumbling warehouse to recover remains. The morgue had to call in mobile storage units for the large number of bodies.
"It was impossible to say what was one building or another, what was the gas station or the plane or what was a dead passenger or a bystander who was hit. Everything has become one," said Ferrari.
Grieving families of victims arrived at the airport and were escorted to back rooms away from packs of reporters.
The day after the TAM Linhas Aereas plane skidded off a runway in the rain - Brazil's second major aviation disaster in less than a year - local media were quick to attribute blame.
Some alleged pilot error, while others said lawmakers were at fault for allowing the airport to open without its short runway having been grooved to aid drainage and traction.
The airport has a history of safety concerns and was once banned from accepting large passenger jets.
Critics of Congonhas airport have repeatedly said its runway is too short.
In 1996, a TAM airlines Fokker-100 skidded off the runway and down a street before erupting in a fireball. That crash killed all 96 people on board and three on the ground.
A federal court in February cited safety concerns when it banned takeoffs and landings of three types of large jets at the airport, which handles much of Brazil's domestic air travel.
But an appeals court overruled the ban, saying it would have severe economic results and there were not enough concerns to justify the ban.
Only this week two smaller planes slipped off the airport's runway in rainy weather. No one was injured.
"The runway was reopened because of popular pressure," said aviation consultant Gianfranco Beting. "This was a tragedy waiting to happen."
All 176 passengers and crew on the TAM airliner are believed to have died in yesterday's crash, as well as others on the ground, including 16 workers in a building owned by the airline.
The plane lost control on landing at the airport, in Sao Paulo, skidding off the rain-soaked runway and across an avenue before slamming into a petrol station and the TAM office and bursting into flames.
One witness said he saw people leaping out of windows to escape the flames in the low-rise building.
Only the tail end of the Airbus 320 remained visible from outside and the fire quickly spread to neighbouring buildings and threatened houses.
Sao Paulo state Governor Jose Serra said there was almost no chance of any survivors. Rescue crews had recovered 45 bodies so far last night.
"I was told that the temperature inside the plane was 1000 degrees, so the chances of there being any survivors are practically nil," Serra said.
Witnesses gave harrowing accounts of the tragedy.
"I saw about 25 charred bodies around the plane, and a dead couple inside a car," said Douglas Ferrari, a doctor who helped firefighters.
"The plane accelerated when it reached the end of the runway and tried to take off again to avoid the avenue, but it crashed into the building and exploded," said salesman Junior Matos.
One woman was travelling in a car on the road when the plane skidded across, narrowly missing them.
"The plane passed in front of my taxi, the taxi stopped, and next to us the plane's wing hit the depot and the plane exploded - everything exploded, and everybody started running away," she told Brazil's Globo TV.
- AGENCIES
