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Sabotage of Brazil's air radar?
Just days after Brazil's deadliest plane crash a radar outage over the Amazon spread the country's aviation crisis overseas, spawning ripple-effect delays at a half-dozen U.S. airports.

For nearly three hours, air traffic controllers closed Brazilian air space The radar failure occurred during the wee hours of Saturday morning, peak travel time between Brazil and the United States. For nearly three hours, air traffic controllers closed Brazilian air space, forcing over 20 international flights to be diverted or canceled. Planes had to return to their points of origin or make unscheduled stops at other airports as far flung as San Juan, Puerto Rico and Santiago, Chile.

Two American Airlines planes traveling from Sao Paulo were forced to make unscheduled landings in the jungle city of Manaus and at least four planes were forced to return to Miami. A United Airlines flight from Washington carrying 73 athletes to Rio de Janeiro for the Pan American Games was canceled, forcing the athletes to arrive a day late.

The Air Force blamed the radar outage on electrical failure, but also said it was investigating whether sabotage was to blame.
The Air Force blamed the radar outage on electrical failure, but also said it was investigating whether sabotage was to blame. The outage came just hours after President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva went on national television to announce new measures to shore-up Brazil's ailing aviation system.

Brazilians have been suffering through flight delays and cancellations since September, when a Boeing 737 operated by Gol Airlines crashed over the Amazon rain forest, killing all 154 people aboard. Four air traffic controllers, as well as two U.S. pilots aboard an executive jet that clipped the 737, face criminal charges in connection with that crash.

The accident was Brazil's worst air disaster until Tuesday, when an Airbus-320 operated by TAM Airlines slammed into a building outside at Sao Paulo's Congonhas airport, killing 191 people.

The Gol crash touched off months of delays and canceled flights in Brazil, as air traffic controllers embarked on a series of work slowdowns to protest precarious conditions in the air.

Many in Brazil suspect recent radar outages that have sporadically stalled domestic air travel are actually veiled work stoppages
Because Brazil remains one the last countries in Latin America to have the military responsible for civilian flight controllers, striking is paramount to treason. Many in Brazil suspect recent radar outages that have sporadically stalled domestic air travel are actually veiled work stoppages — hence the suspicion of sabotage.

Even so, experts say there is also ample reason to believe Saturday's radar outage was simple equipment failure.

Congressional hearings after the Gol crash shocked many travelers, revealing Brazil's airports to be seriously underfunded and stretched to the limit.

"There have been warnings, warnings, warnings about the need to do something about the communications systems, about the runways," said Brazilian aviation consultant Elias Gedeon. "The government didn't understand the importance of this. This is very bad for Brazil."

Gedeon says the problems stretch back at least five years. Spending on aviation security has averaged only $248 million a year since 2003, when Silva took office, about half of what was spent in 2002.

Gedeon says another problem is that the government has doled out top aviation posts to political appointees with little or no expertise.


Posted by: lotp 2007-07-23
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=194282