737 Crashes, BizJet Damaged

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Searchers who parachuted in on Saturday to the crash site where a Boeing 737-800 went down Friday afternoon found no sign of survivors. The wreckage was located in a remote jungle area in the Amazon region of Brazil. The 737, with 155 souls on board, was en route from Manaus to Brasilia when it crashed. Seven people aboard an Embraer Legacy 600 executive jet flying the area felt a jolt, and the pilot found the airplane was damaged. He made a safe emergency landing at Cachimbo air force base. Early reports said the two jets had collided in the air, but later reports said those on board the Legacy saw only a shadow, and the jet may have been hit by debris (we recognize that is an unusual collection of words). An online photo shows damage to the left wingtip and stabilizer on the Legacy.

The Legacy was on a transfer flight to be delivered to a new owner in the U.S. The 737 was operated by Gol, a low-fare airline, and had just been delivered a few weeks ago. The crash is the worst air disaster ever in Brazil. “The jungle is so dense that we’re going to have to open it up” to recover the wreckage, the president of Brazil’s airport authority, Jose Carlos Pereira, said. “It’s a very complex operation, it’s extremely humid there, and there are millions of mosquitoes.” The Embraer Legacy is a corporate version of the ERJ-135.

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