A GOL Cargo Boeing 737-800 freighter overran the active runway at Salvador International Airport in northeastern Brazil during heavy rain on May 9, prompting Brazilian aviation authority CENIPA to open a formal safety investigation and forcing one of the airport's two runways to be shut for the rest of the weekend while the aircraft is recovered.
The 737-800ERX freighter, operated by GOL's cargo division on a domestic feeder rotation, came to rest in the unpaved overrun area beyond the runway end after touching down in a heavy tropical downpour. No injuries were reported among the two pilots or any ground personnel, and the aircraft remained largely intact, although Brazilian media broadcast images of the freighter sitting at an angle in the soft red earth with its main gear partly buried.
Salvador's primary runway was closed within minutes of the event and remained out of service overnight, forcing the airport's operator to push all scheduled airline traffic onto the secondary runway. CENIPA — Brazil's Aeronautical Accident Investigation and Prevention Center — confirmed that an investigator team is en route to the scene and that the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder will be downloaded as a priority. Initial focus is expected to fall on the prevailing wet runway condition, the aircraft's landing weight on the freighter rotation and the use of thrust reversers and autobrakes.
Salvador Airport, which serves the city of Salvador da Bahia in Brazil's northeast, regularly sees heavy convective rain in May. Both 737-800 passenger aircraft and 737-800 freighters have been involved in a number of high-profile runway-excursion events in similar conditions over the past decade, and Boeing classifies wet-runway landing performance as one of the type's most-monitored operational risks.
GOL Linhas Aereas, the freighter's parent, is already operating under restructured ownership after merging with Avianca's parent Abra Group in 2023. The carrier confirmed in a statement that it is fully cooperating with CENIPA, that its other 737 freighter operations across Brazil continue normally and that customer cargo aboard the affected aircraft will be rebooked onto alternative GOL Cargo flights once the freighter has been recovered.
Compiled from publicly available aviation news sources. Featured image: AI-generated by AviationShop. This article is original editorial content; facts have been verified across multiple public sources.
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