Smoke wafts over travelers at Sao Paulo airport

SAO PAULO, July 18 (Reuters) The flames from Brazil's worst plane crash were contained around dawn today, but the smell of smoke and death wafted over travelers at Sao Paulo's airport as a reminder of disaster.

''It took four or five hours to reach the plane,'' medical examiner Douglas Ferrari said. ''When we arrived, it was as expected -- not one trace of life and only some bodies would have the slightest chance of being identified.'' Clouds of grey smoke from the crash site just across from the airport added a haze to the blustery day in Sao Paulo, South America's largest city.

Rescue workers in masks sifted through the mangled Airbus A320 and a crumbling warehouse to recover remains. The morgue had to call in mobile storage units for the large number of bodies.

''It was impossible to say what was one building or another, what was the gas station or the plane or what was a dead passenger or a bystander who was hit. Everything has become one,'' said Ferrari.

Grieving families of victims arrived at the airport and were escorted to back rooms away from packs of reporters.

The day after the TAM Linhas Aereas plane skidded off a runway in the rain -- Brazil's second major aviation disaster in less than a year -- local media were quick to attribute blame.

Some alleged pilot error, while others said lawmakers were at fault for allowing the airport to open without its short runway having been grooved to aid drainage and traction.

Aldo Galiani, director of legal affairs with the police, said he had never seen such carnage in 32 years of work.

One direction of the main Washington Luiz thoroughfare remained closed as cranes dislodged wreckage. The airport resumed flights on an alternate runway.

Despite the deterioration of Brazil's air safety record over the past year, Guilherme Braghetto, 72, showed little concern for his son, whom he brought to the airport for a flight to Goiania.

''I feel for those who lost loved ones, but I don't think lightning so strong will hit twice,'' he said.

On Sept. 29, 2006, a Boeing 737 operated by Brazilian carrier Gol Linhas Aereas Inteligentes crashed after clipping wings with a Legacy business jet over the Amazon rainforest, killing 154 people.

Reuters MP VP0210