SAO PAULO, Aug. 8 (UPI) -- Prosecutors said runway conditions were unsafe when a TAM Airlines jetliner crash-landed at an airport in Sao Paulo, Brazil, in 2007, killing 199 people.
Lawyers said Denise Abreu, the former director of the Brazilian Civil Aviation Agency shouldn't have allowed the jet to land on the Congonhas airport's notoriously short and recently resurfaced runway in heavy rains, CNN reported Thursday.
Abreu is on trial for neglect for her role in the deadliest accident in Brazilian aviation history. Prosecutors have also accused two former TAM directors -- Marco Aurelio dos Santos and Alberto Fajerman -- of neglect.
The prosecution said grooves to channel away excess rainwater had not yet been cut into the runway after its resurfacing 20 days before the July 17, 2007, accident.
They said possible pilot error and mechanical failure may also be to blame. The plane's A320 alarm system failed just before the crash and the pilots hadn't been properly trained to handle crash landings, CNN reported.
TAM Airlines said the plane's thrust reversers -- which help slow it down -- had been deactivated because they were defective.
The accident killed all 187 people on board, along with 12 others on the ground.
