SAO PAULO, Brazil, Sep 30 (Reuters) A Brazilian airline passenger plane with 155 people on board disappeared over the Amazon jungle and was believed to have crashed, local officials and news reports said.
The brand-new Boeing 737-800 operated by Brazilian low-cost carrier Gol disappeared yesterday afternoon after losing radar contact during a flight from the principal Amazon city of Manaus to the national capital, Brasilia, the company said.
The mayor of a remote town in the central state of Mato Grosso said the plane had crashed on a farm in Peixoto de Azevedo municipality. The report could not immediately be confirmed by other authorities.
''From the information we have, the plane fell on Jarina farm,'' Mayor Valter Mioto said in an interview. ''Hospitals in the region are ready to receive the injured.'' The head of Brazil's airports authority, Infraero, said the Gol aircraft collided with another, smaller plane, Globo news agency reported. The report could not be confirmed.
''It will be hard to find something at this time of night but it is not impossible. The search continues,'' said Cosette Castro, spokesman for the Brazilian aviation agency.
Five Brazilian air force jets were searching for the missing plane into the evening, Infraero said.
Gol said Flight 1907 was carrying 149 passengers and six crew members.
The plane had been received new from Boeing on September 12 and had only 200 flight hours, the company said.
Brazil's civil aviation authority said the plane lost contact around the town of Sao Felix do Xingu. The flight left Manaus at 1436 hrs.
At Brasilia airport, dozens of friends and relatives, many weeping, gathered anxiously to await news.
Gol is a low-cost carrier that has expanded rapidly since its founding in 2001 to become Brazil's No 2 airline and to offer flights to neighboring countries.
With its orange and white colors and stylized casual uniforms based on US no-frills carriers, it is an instantly recognizable brand in Brazil and one of its most successful new businesses.
Manaus is host to a number of foreign-owned manufacturing plants making motorcycles, computers and other goods in its duty free zone.
It is also a base for tourism in the Amazon, the world's largest rain forest, and a headquarters for several environmental groups.
In the last major airline crash in Brazil, 33 people were killed when a plane belonging to regional carrier Rico Linhas Aereas crashed in the Amazon flying from Sao Paulo de Olivenca to Manaus on May 14, 2004.
REUTERS SHB RN1448
The brand-new Boeing 737-800 operated by Brazilian low-cost carrier Gol disappeared yesterday afternoon after losing radar contact during a flight from the principal Amazon city of Manaus to the national capital, Brasilia, the company said.
The mayor of a remote town in the central state of Mato Grosso said the plane had crashed on a farm in Peixoto de Azevedo municipality. The report could not immediately be confirmed by other authorities.
''From the information we have, the plane fell on Jarina farm,'' Mayor Valter Mioto said in an interview. ''Hospitals in the region are ready to receive the injured.'' The head of Brazil's airports authority, Infraero, said the Gol aircraft collided with another, smaller plane, Globo news agency reported. The report could not be confirmed.
''It will be hard to find something at this time of night but it is not impossible. The search continues,'' said Cosette Castro, spokesman for the Brazilian aviation agency.
Five Brazilian air force jets were searching for the missing plane into the evening, Infraero said.
Gol said Flight 1907 was carrying 149 passengers and six crew members.
The plane had been received new from Boeing on September 12 and had only 200 flight hours, the company said.
Brazil's civil aviation authority said the plane lost contact around the town of Sao Felix do Xingu. The flight left Manaus at 1436 hrs.
At Brasilia airport, dozens of friends and relatives, many weeping, gathered anxiously to await news.
Gol is a low-cost carrier that has expanded rapidly since its founding in 2001 to become Brazil's No 2 airline and to offer flights to neighboring countries.
With its orange and white colors and stylized casual uniforms based on US no-frills carriers, it is an instantly recognizable brand in Brazil and one of its most successful new businesses.
Manaus is host to a number of foreign-owned manufacturing plants making motorcycles, computers and other goods in its duty free zone.
It is also a base for tourism in the Amazon, the world's largest rain forest, and a headquarters for several environmental groups.
In the last major airline crash in Brazil, 33 people were killed when a plane belonging to regional carrier Rico Linhas Aereas crashed in the Amazon flying from Sao Paulo de Olivenca to Manaus on May 14, 2004.
REUTERS SHB RN1448
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