On August 6, Brazilian Defense Minister Nelson Jobim announced that Jose Carlos Pereira, head of national airport authority Infraero, will be replaced by Space Agency President Sergio Mauricio Brito Gaudenzi effective immediately as the shakeup of the nation's aviation leadership continued in the aftermath of last month's TAM A320 crash.

Pereira becomes the second high-profile official to lose his job since the accident, following former Defense Minister Waldir Pires, who was replaced by Jobim as head of the ministry with oversight of Brazil's troubled air traffic system. Jobim has promised a no-nonsense approach and said that safety will be the top priority, indicating that too much attention and money was spent on passenger amenities at Brazilian airports while airside infrastructure languished.

Pereira gained notice following the TAM crash by saying that accident and one involving a Gol 737 last year were "totally unrelated" and dismissing suggestions that Brazil needed international assistance to fix its ATC problems. "Let [other nations] worry about their airspace and we will worry about ours," he told reporters.