No survivors found from Amazon crash

Rescuers have found that all 155 people aboard a plane died on Friday when it crashed deep in the Brazilian rainforest.

The head of Brazilian airport operator Infraero, Jose Carlos Pereira, says search and rescue teams scouring the wreck site have found only "bodies and more pieces of bodies".

Brazil's Aeronautic Command says the teams have withdrawn two unidentified bodies.

The National Civil Aviation Agency (NCAA) says Gol Airline flight 1907 crashed on Friday after a mid-air collision during its flight from the Amazonian city of Manaus to Brasilia and Rio de Janeiro.

Authorities are trying to establish whether the airliner collided with the US-registered Legacy executive jet, the pilot of which made an emergency landing on Friday, near the area where the crew of flight 1907 last made contact, 85 minutes into its flight.

Officials say Gol's new Boeing 737-800 plummeted nose first in the densely forested area of northern Brazil.

The Legacy's black box flight recorder has been withdrawn and will be analysed by investigators

American survivors

The seven American passengers and crew aboard the Embraer-made business jet escaped unharmed after the pilot managed to land the damaged plane, which was heading to the US.

One of the passengers, New York Times reporter Joe Sharkey said: "No-one believes we managed to survive a mid-air collision".

He says neither of the smaller plane's two pilots "can understand how a 737 could have hit us without them seeing it".

The two crew members and five passengers aboard the Legacy are being interviewed by aviation authorities in the city of Cuiaba.

The NCAA says there is virtually no chance that the crash was due to an air traffic control problem.

The Gol Airlines discount carrier says a few foreigners were among the passengers on its doomed plan, but it has not disclosed their nationalities.

It says four young children and an 11-month-old baby were aboard the ill-fated plane.

Rescue mission

Rescuers battled to make their way to the remote crash site, 200 kilometres from the small town of Peixote Azevedo in Mato Grosso state.

The first military teams to reach the ground had to rappel down from helicopters and were working on clearing a landing area in the dense forest.

Brazilian soldiers then hacked out a clearing in the jungle to let helicopters land in the crash area.

Local media report Caiapos Indians that live in the jungle have been helping rescuers since Saturday.

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva declared three days of mourning on Saturday.

- AFP