Brazil air crash victims' relatives fly over site

SAO PAULO, Brazil - Grieving relatives of 155 people killed in Brazil's worst aviation disaster arrived in the Amazon today to fly over the wreckage as searchers tried to recover corpses in the dense jungle.

The relatives had earlier complained that authorities kept them in the dark about the search for bodies and the investigation into last week's crash of a brand-new Boeing 737-800 belonging to Brazil's budget Gol airline .

All 149 passengers and six crew died in the crash after the plane appeared to have clipped the wings of a smaller executive jet in mid-air, according to aviation authorities.

The Brazilian air force flew a group of six victims' relatives to the crash site in northern Mato Grosso state, about 1000 km northwest of Brasilia.

An air force spokesman said the idea was to show to them how difficult it was for rescue workers to reach the plane, which plunged nose first into the rainforest and disintegrated. Only two bodies were recovered by yesterday.

"They will be able to see the difficulties of the operation ... The place is difficult (to access), there are trees of up to 40 metres tall," the spokesman said. "The debris is scattered so rescue work is even more complicated."

The disaster site was found on Sunday and rescuers had to rappel down from helicopters while others hacked through thick jungle guided by local Indians to reach the wreckage.

The smaller executive jet involved in the collision made an emergency landing at the Cachimbo air force base on Saturday with five passengers on board, none of whom was hurt.

The previous worst air disaster in Brazilian history was the June 1982 crash of a Vasp flight which hit a mountain near Fortaleza in northeastern Brazil, killing 137 people.

- REUTERS