'No glitches' on Brazil crash jet

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An airliner that crashed in Brazil last month had shown no signs of mechanical or computer error, a congressional panel probing air safety has heard.

The claim was made by Yannick Malinge, Airbus flight safety vice-president.

Some 199 people died when a TAM Airlines Airbus 320 skidded off a runway and crashed into a building outside Sao Paulo's Congonhas airport.

The disaster, at Sao Paulo's domestic airport, was the second major air tragedy in Brazil in under a year.

In late 2006, a Gol passenger plane and an executive jet collided over the Amazon, killing more than 150 people.

'Premature' conclusion

"There was no mechanical error or malfunction of the computers on board," Mr Malinge told the panel, basing his evidence on data from the aircraft's flight recorders.

Last week the same panel said that an engine throttle in the wrong position was probably a major cause of the deadly accident, which occurred in wet weather.

But Mr Malinge said this was a "premature" conclusion.

Other possible causes of the crash being investigated include the condition of the runway.

Brazilian aviation has been in chaos since late 2006, when a Gol passenger plane and an executive jet collided over the Amazon, killing more than 150 people.

Both the defence minister and the head of the country's airports authority have left their posts since the crash.

The airports authority, Infraero, has been criticised for allowing the Congonhas runway to be used even though it had not been "grooved" after being surfaced.