I lived very close to Congonhas airport (five minutes by car). I travelled so many times through this airport, For those who don´t know Congonhas it looks like an aircraft carrier, with no escape areas, completely sorrounded by houses, buildings and big avenues with huge traffic almost every day, specially at the rush hour when you can see the planes passing right above your head (specially when you cannot drive due to the traffic jam).
It is not allowed for a pilot make mistakes on approach to land on this airport. But it always was safe to operate (this airport is almost 70 years old). The government do not installed the grooving on the runway which would help, specially with rain, the aircrafts to stop at a safer limit at the end of the runway.
As this is the busiest airport in Brazil, used as a hub for the major companies such as Gol and TAM, they pushed the government to reopen the runway. It was good up to the first rain, which caused the skid of a Pantanal ATR-42 and the very next day this tragedy with the A-320.
According to one top Air Force Brigadier (equivalent to General) the A-320 made the correct landing approach with the correct speed. But one important thing that was not mention in this thread yet. The same A-320 had presented problems in the week before the accident. According to one captain from TAM, who gave an interview on TV, they managed to stop the same airplane, three days before the crash, at the very end of the runway and the runway was totally dry.
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