By DPA
Sao Paulo : Brazilian first division club Gremio narrowly escaped disaster as they transferred to another plane shortly before the ill-fated TAM airline took off in Porto Alegre.
About 200 people, including victims on the ground, are presumed dead after the Airbus A320, with 180 passengers on board, skidded off the runway at Congonhas airport in Sao Paulo, across a busy highway and rammed a petrol station and another building, setting off a huge blaze around 6.50 p.m. (2150 GMT) Tuesday.
Players of the Porto Alegre team, which last month lost the final of the Libertadores Cup to Argentina's Boca Juniors, were scheduled to fly to Sao Paulo on the TAM flight.
The father of Gremio's goalkeeper Sebastian Soja said that the club had decided shortly before the plane left Porto Alegre that they would travel on a different flight.