Pope Benedict said he was praying for victims of the Brazilian passenger plane that crashed in Sao Paulo on Tuesday, killing as many as 200 people in what may be the country's worst air disaster.
"The Holy Father ... asks God to give strength and comfort for the injured and all those who were affected by this tragedy," the Vatican said, in a telegram signed by Vatican Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone.The Pope visited Brazil in May.
Rescue workers sifted on Wednesday through the smoldering wreckage of what is Brazil's second major air disaster in less than a year.
By early morning, firemen had pulled 90 charred bodies from the Airbus A320 that had 186 people on board and from the ruins of a building the plane hit. They said they expected no survivors.
Three people in the building were found alive, but later died in hospital, raising the official death toll to 93, Sao Paulo state public security secretariat said. One fireman told local media the death toll could rise to 200.
Rescue teams found the plane's black box in the wreckage. It will be analyzed by Air Force specialists.
TAM Linhas Aereas, Brazil's No. 1 airline, released the list of passengers overnight. It had said earlier the number of people on board was 176.
The plane, flying from Porto Alegre in southern Brazil, skidded off a wet landing strip after dark on Tuesday at Sao Paulo's Congonhas airport, shot over a bustling avenue, and slammed into a cargo terminal where people were working.
The airport is known for slippery runways and some aviation experts have questioned if the runway had been sufficiently grooved to drain water in heavy rains.
