Boeing 737 in Brazil: The 737 was the main jet used for domestic flights by Brazil's biggest airline, Varig, since 1975. It was operated in a flight that crossed almost the entire Brazilian territory, from North to South, which was: Belém, Marabá, Brasília (the country's capital), Goiânia, Uberlândia, Uberaba and São Paulo (the biggest city). In the Awesome80s, when I was a child, I used to live in Uberaba, and there were 2 daily flight with Boeing 737-200. I lived near the airport, and I always heard the landings and take-off: it was imposible not to hear, since the 737-200 is very noisy indeed. In the 90's they replaced the 737-200 with a near version, the 500, which is much quieter. Now there are no longer 737-200 operating in Brazil, but its newer versions are widely used: 300, 400, 500 and 700.

It is noteworthy that, during almost two decades operating the 737-200 in the forementioned route, there was only one crash, in 1989, and it was due to a crew mistake, who made a confusion in cruise flight and got lost over Northern Brazil. They were over the Amazon forest, where (at that time) there was no radar coverage, so they couldn't ask to ground control to locate them. When they ran out of fuel they had to make an emergency landing. Although they were landing over the jungle in complete darkness, there were very few casualties, and most of the people in the plane survived. This shows how reliable and strong the 737 is!

--Carlo Moiana