All 155 Feared Dead in Brazil Jet Crash

In this picture released by Brazil's Air Force, a part of Gol airline's Boeing 737-800, center, is seen near the Jarina cattle ranch, 1,750 kilometers (1,090 miles) northwest of Sao Paulo in the state of Mato Grosso on Saturday, Sept. 30, 2006. The jetliner crashed in the Amazon jungle on Friday, Sept. 29, 2006, apparently after clipping an Embraer's Legacy 600 jet. Officials said Saturday they doubt any of the 155 people aboard survived. (AP Photo/Brazil's Air Force, Handout) (Str - AP)

"The main question the investigation must address is how can this happen with two ultramodern aircraft with collision-preventing equipment," he said.

Gol said the jet that crashed had been delivered by Boeing Co. just three weeks ago and had been flown for only 200 hours.

Gol vice president David Barioni said both Brazilians and foreigners were aboard, but did not provide any breakdown.

If no survivors are found, it would surpass the 1982 crash of a Boeing 727 operated by the now-defunct Vasp airline that killed 137 people as Brazil's worst air disaster.

The wreckage was found near the 49,500-acre Jarina cattle ranch, 1,090 miles northwest of Sao Paulo in the state of Mato Grosso.

New York Times spokeswoman Diane McNulty said Times Business Travel columnist Joe Sharkey was one of seven people aboard the Legacy jet, which was on route from Sao Jose dos Campos, near Sao Paulo to the United States. Sharkey was on assignment in Brazil for a business magazine specializing on corporate jets.

Sharkey said the Legacy jet stabilized after the apparent collision and then landed at a Brazilian air force base in the Amazon state of Para, according to McNulty.

The general director for Brazil's Civil Aviation Agency Authority, Milton Zuanazzi, said the Legacy plane belonged to a company named Excel Air, which had been authorized to fly the aircraft out of Brazil.

It was the first major incident for Gol Linhas Aereas Intelligentes SA, now Brazil's second-largest airline.

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Associated Press writers Stan Lehman, Tales Azzoni and Alan Clendenning in Sao Paulo, Harold Olmos in Brasilia and Michael Astor in Rio de Janeiro contributed to this report.