Brazilian plane crash clues.

Brazilian officials are investigating what caused a plane to slide off the runway at a Sao Paulo airport and crash on landing, killing up to 200 people. All 186 people aboard the Airbus 320 jet and a number of people on the ground died in heavy rain on Tuesday evening. The video footage presents the final moments of the Tam flight and another similar plane which had arrived earlier. The video shows that it takes the first aircraft apparently 11 seconds to travel along the runway, while the plane that crashed covers the same distance in three. It disappears out of view and the flash of an explosion can be seen a short time later.

According to Brazil's TV Globo, the Brazilian air force, which oversees the country's air traffic control system, believes the plane was travelling at excessive speed though it was drizzling. Reports spoke of people jumping out of the windows of the low-rise Tam Airlines building as the plane struck.

The runway, criticised for being too short, had been resurfaced, but not yet fully grooved to help drain rain water. More than 160 bodies have been recovered from the burned wreckage.

The plane accelerated when it reached the end of the runway and tried to take off again, but failed, sending the aircraft crashing into a fuel depot and cargo warehouse, where it burst into flames. Mr Bolo said three workers in the Tam Airlines building had also been killed and five others were missing. President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has declared three days of national mourning for the victims of what is thought to be Brazil's worst air disaster.

Previously, the worst accident in Brazil's aviation history occurred last September, when a Gol Boeing 737 flying from Manaus to Brasilia crashed into the Amazon jungle, killing all 154 people on board after a mid-air collision with a small private jet.

In 1996, a Tam Airlines Fokker-100 crashed minutes after take-off from Congonhas airport, bursting into flames and killing all 96 people on board and three on the ground.

a) Find synonyms in the text for the following words and phrase:

to slip, skid –

supposedly, they say (people say) –

warehouse –

put something over, wrap –

blast –

speed up, go faster –

ruins –

to be in charge, manage, run, lead, supervise –

too much –

to cut through –

grieve -