Brasilia - Public prosecutors in Brasilia on Tuesday began an investigation into complaints about the alleged theft of documents, jewellery and other objects belonging to people who died in a plane crash in the Amazon rainforest in late September 2006. The accident claimed the lives of 154 people when a large airliner collided in mid-air with a small twin-engine plane that managed to land safely. The larger plane crashed in the jungle in what was then the worst accident in Brazilian aviation history before another crash left nearly 200 people dead last month in Sao Paulo.
Investigations of the alleged theft will initially focus on the case of passenger Maria das Gracas Rickli, whose personal documents were recently used to apply for a loan of more than 10,000 dollars to purchase a car in Brasilia.
Public prosecutor Diaulas Costa Ribeiro said the investigation will seek to determine whether the documents were those that disappeared in the accident or whether criminals made new documents with the name of the dead woman.
Since the first complaint was filed on Sunday, several relatives of crash victims have said they did not receive objects that belonged to their loved ones. One man told Brazilian television that he received a call from Rio de Janeiro from his wife's cell phone, although the woman died in the accident almost a year ago.
Relatives of victims of more than 90 people who died in a 1996 plane crash in Brazil have complained of similar robberies.
The Brazilian Congress also plans to investigate the alleged pillage, said legislator Eduardo Cunhathe, the chairman of the commission that is investigating the current chaos affecting the Brazilian aviation industry.
