A Brazilian congressional inquiry on Brazil's deadliest air accident last month, which left 199 people dead, believes that there was no human error in the TAM airline crash. For the congressmen in charge of the probe the pilots tried but were not able to brake the airplane and they didn't attempt to take off again as was speculated previously.
The acting president of the inquiry, representative Eduardo Cunha, after having heard the dialogue from the cockpit's voice recorder, which registered the last minutes of the flight before the Airbus burst into flames, said today that's obvious that there was an equipment failure.
"It's clear that they were not able to brake nor did they try to take off again. The equipment failure was bigger and more preponderant for the accident than the human error".
Before reading a transcription of the conversation between the pilots, Cunha warned the congressmen that the recorded dialogue was horrifying. "The picture here is very shocking, especially in the final part, when the pilots recognized that they couldn't do anything else."
Representative Miguel Martini, who is a flight controller, explained that usually a plane has four kinds of brakes: two aerodynamic ones which are the spoiler and the flaps, plus the mechanical brake and the thrust reverser. The recording shows that the spoiler was not working. As for the thrust reverses, only the one on the left side was operational.
The final dialogue between the pilots of Flight 3052 show the pilots checking the aircraft speed. In the transcription, we can hear one of the pilots saying: "spoiler, nothing."
At 6:43 pm the Airbus commander reminds the co-pilot that they only have one thrust reverser: "Remember that we only have one reverser." To which the co-pilots replies: "Yes, we only have the left one".
At 6:47 pm, the tower tells the Airbus pilots that they have permission to land and once again reminds them that the tarmac is "wet and slippery."
At 6:48 pm, after the commander took control for the landing procedure, we can hear one of the pilots screaming: "Slow down, slow down, slow down." "I can't, I can't, I can't" is the reply.
Somebody says then: "Oh my God! Oh, my God! Turn, turn." A male voice stil says: "Oh, no!" Screams are heard, a female voice screams and then there is the crash sound.
