Officials say all on Brazil jet died

BRASILIA -- Authorities said yesterday that there were no survivors among the 155 people aboard the Brazilian jetliner that crashed deep in the Amazon jungle, as rescue workers began to pull bodies out of the twisted wreckage.

The Boeing 737-800 apparently clipped a smaller executive jet in midair Friday, crashing in jungle so dense that crews had to cut down trees Saturday to clear a space for rescue helicopters to land. The smaller plane, carrying seven Americans, landed safely at a nearby air force base.

The Brazilian Air Force said in a statement that rescue workers combing the wreckage found no signs that anyone survived the crash. Rescue workers had recovered two bodies by last night and airlifted them out by helicopter, the statement said.

Gol airlines, which operated the flight, confirmed there were no survivors.

About 30 Brazilian Air Force troops were at the site late yesterday looking for more bodies.

``It's extremely difficult to get there," said Ademir Ribeiro, a foreman on the nearby Jarina ranch, the center for rescue operations. The ranch was in the central state of Mato Grosso, about 1,090 miles northwest of Rio de Janeiro.

Celio Wilson de Oliveira, the Mato Grosso state secretary of justice and public safety, said the commercial plane crashed near a reservation of the Kayapo Capoto-Jarina Indians in Xingu Park, and Indians with machetes had helped hack a path to the crash site.

Ribeiro said rescue workers were keeping everyone away from the wreckage.

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who election officials said yesterday is headed to a runoff in his bid for reelection, declared three days of official mourning: ``Brazil is suffering with this."

If all 155 passengers and crew are dead, Friday's crash would be the worst in Brazilian history. Previously, the deadliest was the 1982 crash of a Boeing 727 operated by the now-defunct Vasp airline in the northeastern city of Fortaleza that killed 137 people.

The list of passengers on the Gol jet was not released.

The Globo news agency said yesterday that police questioned the seven passengers and crew aboard the executive jet, which had been headed to the United States. The passengers included Joe Sharkey, a journalist for The New York Times.

The seven said they felt a bump and the plane shake when Gol Flight 1907 clipped the smaller jet midair, Globo reported. The pilot then took manual control for the landing, the paper said.