Fatal Blast On Airliner Seen As Failed Try At Suicide

An explosion aboard a Brazilian airliner that hurled a man 8,000 feet to his death may have been part of a failed suicide attempt by another passenger, Brazilian media reported Saturday.

Newspapers cited police as saying they intend to question a 58-year-old unemployed math teacher about the July 9 explosion aboard a TAM Airlines Fokker flight between Vitoria and Sao Paulo.

The blast blew a hole in the fuselage, killing a 38-year-old man and injuring six other passengers.

Police believe Leonardo Teodoro de Castro, a Sao Paulo teacher who boarded the plane in Sao Jose dos Campos, placed the bomb under his seat in a suicide attempt, newspapers reported. De Castro suffered extensive hearing damage.

Three days after the blast, de Castro was struck by a bus and seriously injured.

Pedro Sarzi, a Sao Paulo police official, told O Globo that de Castro had 13 life insurance policies.