SAO PAULO, Brazil — A TAM jet pulled out of an attempted landing Thursday at Sao Paulo's Congonhas airport, and federal prosecutors sought a court order to shut down the entire airport — Brazil's busiest — until the investigation into this week's crash that killed at least 189 people was completed.
The air force, meanwhile, released video of Tuesday's landing prior to the crash, which shows Flight 3054 from Porto Alegre coming in much faster than other planes that were landing at the same time.
The TAM jet that aborted its landing was rerouted to Sao Paulo's international airport after coming in at an unsafe angle Thursday to Congonhas, the nation's airport authority Infraero said.
Critics have condemned the government for failing to invest in safety measures adopted by other urban airports. Tuesday night's crash, Brazil's second major air disaster in less than a year, killed all 186 people on the plane and three others on the ground. Eleven other people were hospitalized.
Late Wednesday, federal prosecutors asked for a court order to shut down Congonhas. It was unclear when judges would rule on the request about the airport that lies in the heart of Sao Paulo, Brazil's largest city.
Doing so would likely create huge problems for civil aviation throughout Latin America's largest nation because Congonhas is a key hub, but prosecutors called the move essential to ensuring air safety.
"It is necessary to temporarily paralyze the activities at the Congonhas airport in Sao Paulo until a complete renovation of both of its runways can be completed and there is certainty that they are fully secure," prosecutors said in a statement.
But Jose Carlos Pereira, who heads Infraero, said closure of the airport would be "radical" and unjustified. He noted the runway where the plane crashed will be reopened only after a complete inspection.
"It's not a matter of shutting down the airport or opening indiscriminately. We have operated thousands of times under heavy rain and nothing has happened," Pereira said.
At least 181 bodies had been retrieved from the site where the Airbus-320 crashed Tuesday in a heavy rain, igniting a fireball. The plane slammed into a TAM airlines building after narrowly clearing the airport's perimeter fence and rush-hour traffic on a surrounding highway.
Shares of TAM Linhas Aereas SA and Gol Linhas Aereas Inteligentes — Brazil's top two airlines — fell for a second straight day Thursday on Brazil's Bovespa exchange amid fears Brazilians will cut back on flights.
The crash came less than a year after 154 people were killed in the September collision of a Gol Airlines Boeing 737 with a small jet over the Amazon rainforest.
"It's been 10 months since the last worst air accident in Brazilian history and now we've had an accident worse than that," said David Fleischer, a political scientist at the University of Brasilia. "If you look at what's happened since September, the answer is nothing."
"It was a tragedy foretold," said political commentator Lucia Hippolito. "The government has done nothing because of administrative inefficiency and simple incompetence."
For months, air safety concerns have been aired in congressional hearings, and pilots and traffic controllers have worried for years about the short, slippery runways at Brazil's busiest airport.
Landing on the 6,362-foot runway at Congonhas airport is so challenging that pilots liken it to an aircraft carrier — if they don't touch down within the tarmac's first 1,000 feet, they're warned to pull up and circle around again. The ungrooved runway becomes even more treacherous in the rain.
Congressional investigations have raised questions about Brazil's underfunded air traffic control system, deficient radar and lack of investment in infrastructure, even as airlines struggle to cope with a surge in air travel caused by the booming economy.
President Luis Inacio da Silva has been unable to wrest control of the civil aviation system from the military, which oversees Brazil's air traffic controllers and has filled top positions at the national aviation agency with political appointees.
To counter critics, Finance Minister Guido Mantega said Thursday that the government has invested heavily in Brazil's air travel infrastructure and plans future investments of $526 million to meet rising traffic.
The airport recently resurfaced the runway to provide better braking in rainy conditions. However, the new surface hadn't dried enough for the next step — cutting deep grooves into the tarmac.
But Armando Schneider Filho, director of engineering for Infraero, denied the runway was to blame for the crash.
"I can confirm that there was no possibility of skidding on this runway," he said. "Twenty minutes before the accident, Infraero performed a visual inspection of the runway and detected no problems. It was wet, but there was no accumulation of water."
Brig. Jorge Kersul Filho, director of the air force's Center for Investigation and Prevention of Air Accidents, said it appeared the pilot had tried to take off again before the crash.
"That he jumped over the avenue was an indication he tried to take off. If he didn't, he would have gone nose down at the end of the runway," he said.
The plane's flight data and cockpit voice recorders were being sent to the United States for analysis and French and U.S. safety investigators were assisting in the investigation.
Like many congested urban airports, Sao Paulo's domestic air travel hub is surrounded by development and has no room for the runway extensions recommended by air safety groups. New York's LaGuardia Airport, by contrast, has a 7,003-feet runway.
The International Federation of Air Line Pilots' Associations said the accident shows the need for the next best thing — braking systems of soft cement beyond the runway, where wheels can sink in and slow the jets to a safe stop.
Concerned about being made scapegoats, controllers have engaged in strikes and work slowdowns to raise safety concerns, causing months of delays and cancelations.
Through it all, one of the most glaring problems has been the runway at Congonhas. In addition to two planes that skidded off the runway Monday, a Boeing 737-400 overshot it in a heavy rain on March 22.
In February, a federal court briefly banned three types of large jets from the runway, but was overruled on appeal. Airbus-320s were not covered under the ban.
Associated Press writers Michael Astor in Rio de Janeiro and Stan Lehman in Sao Paulo contributed to this report.