The Longform Guide to Airplanes

?The same bewilderment afflicted others within earshot of the impact. To the west of Caiap? territory, at the headquarters of a 21,000-head cattle ranch called Fazenda Jarin?, many of the employees heard the thunder and could make nothing of it. The manager of Fazenda Jarin? is a small, lonely man named Ademir Riebero, who told me he knew that the north-south traffic between Manaus and Bras?lia passes high overhead, and that at night you can hear the airplanes and see their lights. On the evening of September 29, however, when he heard talk of the unexplained thunder, he did not wonder if one had crashed. To me he said, ?We just couldn?t imagine it could happen here. Only in S?o Paulo or places like that.? Indeed, the airplanes that passed overhead were in the least critical phase of flight, cruising high and straight through the cold clean sky, unstressed, and organically resistant to almost any error their crews might make. But then Riebero received a radiophone call from an official he knew, who said, ?Ademir, there is a Gol airplane that has disappeared, and it seems to have gone down near you.? Gol is a discount airline named after the drawn-out victory cry in soccer?G-O-O-O-O-L!!! Riebero switched on the television news and saw a map labeled Jarin? on the screen. It was odd how this authenticated the situation in his mind. From the lack of reports from the outstations, he surmised that the airplane had not crashed on the ranch?s holdings. But given the size and density of the bordering jungle, it was not surprising that an entire Boeing could have disappeared.?

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