There were no survivors among the 155 people aboard the Brazilian jetliner that collided with a smaller plane and crashed in the Amazon rain forest in the nation's worst air disaster, authorities said. Aviation officials confirmed late Sunday that the Boeing 737-800 and an executive jet clipped each other in midair Friday, causing Gol airlines Flight 1907 to crash in jungle so dense that crews had to cut down trees to clear a space for rescue helicopters to land. The smaller plane _ carrying Americans _ landed safely at a nearby air force base. Denise Abreu, director of Brazil's Civil Aviation Agency, told the government news service Agencia Brasil that after analyzing the flight data recorder of the executive jet, «what we can affirm is that there was a collision.» No other details were immediately released, and authorities had not yet located recorders from the Gol plane, she said. The Brazilian air force said in a statement that rescue workers had combed through the wreckage and found no signs that anyone could have survived the crash. Workers had recovered two bodies by Sunday night and airlifted them out by helicopter, the statement said. Some 30 Brazilian air force troops were staying to search for bodies and inspect the wreckage throughout the night; about 80 have been at the site during the day. Air force officials said they were widening the radius of the search from 5 kilometers (3 miles) from the crash site to 10 kilometers (6 miles) and acknowledged they may be unable to recover all 155 bodies. Gol airlines, which operated the flight, confirmed there were no survivors in its own release. The list of passengers was released, but Gol said it wasn't clear whether any non-Brazilians were aboard.
