Replaces Defense Minister In Response To TAM Accident

It's not clear why he chose to go public with this information one week after the worst airline disaster in Brazil's history... but just after swearing in a new Minister of Defense Wednesday, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva made a public confession: he's afraid of flying.

"Every time the doors shut on an airplane, I surrender my fate to God because I'm in the hands of a pilot who is a human being, of a (flight) controller who says when I can stop and go; and I'm at the mercy of an ultramodern machine, but a machine nevertheless, and of the weather, which man is not always able to control," he said.

The admission came after he swore in after Nelson Jobim as a replacement for ousted Waldir Pires as defense minister in an attempt to mend his country's turbulent airways and, perhaps, his own tarnished image. As ANN reported, a TAM Airline A320 skidded off a rain-slicked runway at Congonhas airport in Sao Paulo and crashed into a gas station and terminal, killing nearly 200 people

Lula ousted Pires in the political fallout from the July 19 TAM Airways accident. The defense ministry is in charge of air safety, according to Agence France-Presse.

Brazil's president vowed to do "whatever it takes" to resolve the nation's aviation crisis, according to the Associated Press

"From now on, it's necessary to do what needs to be done, spend what needs to be spent, to reassure Brazilian families. The only thing we can't promise is that there will be no more accidents. But there will be tranquility," Silva said.

Lula's government has been the target of an increasing amount of criticism for not having taken action to prevent such a tragedy.

"I'm scared of flying in an airplane. I confess this in public because it's not shameful to admit we're afraid," Lula said.

FMI: www.infraero.gov.br/usa, www.tam.com.br