A SINGLE Disastrous Error! TAM flight 3054

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Petter, as much as I believe you’re a top tier, 1% pilot, I really believe your true calling is story telling. It just keeps getting better and better with every episode.

I flew the next day to Congonhas and it was raining, pilot diverted to GRU. When the transfer bus left us at CGH, I’m hit by the sight of the blackened tail fin and the smell of aviation fuel. Will never forget the sight and smell…

The fact that not only the safety margins were so thin, but there was a goddamn fuel station in the path that a plane could take if it were to have a runway excursion is so painfully tragic and unfortunate.

I remember this accident very well. I was working in Rio Grande do Sul back in 2007, and I had to fly back to São Paulo on that day to take a substitute exam at 9:00 PM. I got my tickets for this flight, everything was fine. In the morning I found out I had enough points so I didn't need to take the exam anymore. So, I cancelled my ticket and moved on with life. It is still scary for me to think that I could have been in this plane. Unfortunately, I flew with some of the crew members on the previous Friday (flight 3056), and it's horrible to imagine what they went thru. I remember one flight attendant named Evelyn, she was probably 20 years old, super sweet and beautiful. RIP.

I remember this accident vividly, my dad was supposed to be on that flight. He was in Porto Alegre working as a consultant for a company, and the rest of the family was in São Paulo waiting for him for a trip into the country. We weren't sure if he would come on that day or not because he had faced some delays on his job. So not to delay the family trip he and my mom agreed that we would travel by ourselves and he would catch us by bus either way when he arrived in SP. A couple hours later when we were in the highway my dad called to reassure us that he didn't catch the plane. We didn't understand much and we couldn't talk much as well because the phone signal wasn't that good back then (tbf it still isn't good nowadays), but when we arrived in the town we went to, all the news were talking about the crash. We drove on the street of the accident a couple hours before it happened, and thanks to my dad's call, we never had to worry if he was in it or not. But still, I consider it a lot of luck that his work had delayed. I can't imagine what it was like for people who lost people they care about, just the thought that my dad was supposed to be there sends shivers down my spine. RIP to all who lost their lives that day.

Whoever invented that crushable stopping material needs ALL the medals and a parade. And one HELL of a raise

I was a teenager when i saw this accident on the TV and it was a shocking event for any brazilian at the same. As you said, the fire took a long time to be managed and the air crisis on Brazil reached it's pinnacle. I feel confortable watching how you managed to show the world our story with so much respect. PLEASE, we need to see a video about the Gol 1907, the most shocking air accident of Brazil for the reasons that it happened. You're the best aviation content creator of the internet, keep doing this amazing job!!

Petter, a brazillian here! Awesome video as usual, everything you mentioned about the delays, the end of VARIG, the growth of companies, the irritated passengers, etc., is true. However, one detail was missing, which was the trigger for all of this to explode: the flight Gol 1907 accident. In the VARIG 254 video, I even commented that I suggested a video about these accidents, TAM 3054 and Gol 1907, but it was important that the Gol 1907 came first because it plays a fundamental role in the 3054 accident. The 1907 flight was a mid-air collision, and investigations began to point to errors by the controllers, who were working very overloaded, controlling a number of aircraft above the limit they could handle. When the accusations began to fall on the involved controllers and they started being punished, including with imprisonment, all the controllers began to perform a "standard operation," controlling only the number of aircraft they could according to regulations. This caused the real air chaos that Brazil was experiencing: planes in flight could not enter another sector because the controller of that sector was already controlling the maximum number of aircraft, so they did not vacate the previous sector, other planes could not enter, and so on, until it reached the point that planes could not even take off because the airspace was already "full." The airport terminals were completely overcrowded, hundreds of flights were canceled or took off 1 or 2 days late. Controllers could be responsible for a limit of 14 aircraft in their area, if I’m not mistaken, but they frequently had 20 or 25 under their responsibility. When this excess of aircraft in each separate control area was no longer allowed to fly, the chaos began.

As soon as Petter says " remember that" I'm ready for the next bit of the story. Fantastic research and clear story telling with difficult technical elements broken down. Deserves the recognition this channel has.

I got a phone call a few days later. It was my friend calling to tell me about the accident. At that time he was a steward with TAM, and he was supposed to be on that plane. But he called in sick that day. He knew pretty much all of the crew.

I loved how your English is very clear and easy for a non-native English speaker to understand.

"This situation wasn't envisioned by the designers." As an engineer, in a very different industry, something I say often is that the first 90% of the work is getting things to work the way you've planned it out. The "second 90%" of the work is thinking through, "What are all the ways this could possibly go wrong?" It's really hard identifying all of those, "Well it should be impossible to end up in this situation... but what if it happened?" cases. Sometimes real life is the only thing that shows you those situations, and when that happens it's so critical to make sure it doesn't happen again.

I was on that avenue at the time of the accident, 5 mins away. I had just arrived in Brazil on another airport from an international flight and was taking the shuttle to congonhas, and because of this we were stuck in traffic for hours. two of my cousins were flying for TAM at the time, and another cousin worked on the building that was hit. She had left the building minutes before the crash. She lost a lot of friends that day. Thank you for another great episode.

At first I thought it was YT translating the thumbnail, I’m pleased to see you care about the Brazilian audience.

The fact air bus didnt have a fail safe to shut down the other engine is baffling. Why would one engine in reverse not automatically make the other engine do the same during landing?

I am a seasoned pilot and I can tell you flying 23000 hours myself these things can still get you when you feel invulnerable. Respect for your video

I am Brazilian, and I've been keeping up with your content from a while and thank you for telling these stories with such empathy and respect! 🙏🏻 Keep up the good work! You're such a great storyteller!

The issue with large delays mentioned here (also known the brazilian aviation crisis) was caused by a mid-air colision in September of 2006 between Gol Flight 1907 and an ExcelAire Embraer. The blame was mostly put on the Air Traffic Controllers so they decided to protest with a work-to-rule campaign which led to the massive delays due to inadequate technology and understaffing. Usually this would have been compensated for by controllers taking short-cuts, which was now not being done anymore. While the Crash of Gol 1907 is often seen as the start of the crisis it‘s important to mention what was going on before that: Brazil‘s ATC system was still run by the military at that time and as early as 2003 the Air Force had warned of outdated equipment, understaffing and lack of funding. For the next 3 years higher budget requests were denied.

Can we please give credit to the Brazil aviation authorities for a thorough and well done investigation. It would have been easy to fall prey to settling for pilot error for not following prescribed procedures and leave it at that. But they persevered to turn over every stone and find out the reason why the crew did what they did and what contributed to the accident, and did their best to do what they could to ensure it didn’t happen again. I am very impressed by the work they did.