Rescuers in Brazil Amazon hack way to jet wreckage

BRASILIA, Brazil, Oct 1 (Reuters) Rescue workers guided by Indian trackers hacked their way through dense Amazon jungle on Sunday to reach the wreckage of a Brazilian passenger plane that crashed with 155 people on board.

Authorities say they have little hope of finding survivors from the plane belonging to Brazilian low-cost airline Gol in what is feared to be the country's worst ever aviation disaster.

''The Air Force has searched the area without finding any signs of survival,'' Brigadier Jose Carlos Pereira, head of the aviation authority Infraero, said last night.

About 200 soldiers, firemen, and local volunteers were cutting through thick vegetation with the help of native Indian guides. They were due to arrive at the crash site later today, an Infraero spokesman said.

''Nobody has actually been to the site yet,'' he said.

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has decreed three days of national mourning for the victims of the disaster, which has overshadowed Sunday's nationwide general elections.

The brand-new Boeing 737-800 probably plunged into the ground nose first after it clipped a smaller executive jet, Pereira said.

Search planes spotted the crash site in Mato Grosso state, about 1,000 km northwest of Brasilia yesterday. Authorities had lost radar contact with the flight on Friday afternoon as it flew from the principal Amazon city of Manaus to the capital Brasilia.

MORE REUTERS PR PM1932