Flying through South America's busiest airports has become frightening and time-consuming for passengers and pilots alike as a surge in travelers overwhelms underfunded air traffic control systems.
The Argentine capital's main airport radar did not work properly since being struck by lightning in March, meaning jets were forced to fly under manual control, causing delays and at least two near-collisions, according to air traffic controllers.
A September crash that was Brazil's deadliest air disaster exposed other gaps, from inadequate equipment to poor training.
Angry stranded travelers have stormed airline check-in counters and runways in Brazil and fistfights have broken out in waiting areas. Controllers -- concerned about being made scapegoats -- have engaged in strikes and work slowdowns to raise safety concerns.
The problems in Buenos Aires and Sao Paulo ripple through Latin America and beyond as travelers make connecting flights. On Friday, all flights from Sao Paulo to Europe and the US were temporarily suspended due to equipment failure and another slowdown by controllers.
Brazil and Argentina acknowledge failing to make needed investments in radar for decades, even as South America's booming economies fueled growth in air travel. Foreign travelers to Buenos Aires' main international airport have more than doubled in five years to 2.1 million last year, while the number of domestic flights in Brazil has risen by 49 percent, the governments say.
The world's pilots have lobbied to solve the problems since a Boeing 737 wound up on a collision course with a small executive jet over the Amazon on Sept. 29, killing all 154 people on the passenger jet.
A Brazilian judge indicted four flight controllers and the smaller jet's two US pilots on the equivalent of manslaughter charges, but the defendants point to other problems, from holes in radar coverage to the inability of some Brazilian controllers to clearly speak English, the language of international aviation.
Meghan Bolden, a 26-year-old American studying in Buenos Aires, sweated through takeoff on her flight home to Washington.
"The pilot, who was American, got on and said we were going to be taking off manually," Bolden said. "It's like we were back in the Wright brothers era."
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS