São José do Xingu São José do Xingu São José do Xingu is a municipality in the state of Mato Grosso in the Central-West Region of Brazil. On 3 September 1989, a Varig Boeing 737-241 registration PP-VMK operating flight 254 flying from São Paulo-Guarulhos to Belém-Val de Cães with intermediate stops, crashed near São José do Xingu while on the last leg of the flight between Marabá and Belém due to a pilot navigational error, which led to fuel exhaustion and a subsequent belly landing into the jungle, 40 km from São José do Xingu. Out of 54 occupants, there were 13 fatalities, all
Xingu-Tocantins-Araguaia moist forests World Wildlife Fund classes the ecoregion "Vulnerable". The Tapajós-Xingu, Xingu-Tocantins-Araguaia and Tocantins/Pindare moist forests ecoregions on the eastern edge of the Amazon basin have all been badly affected by human settlement and deforestation. The Xingu-Tocantins-Araguaia region is the most deforested and degraded part of the Amazon region after the adjoining Tocantins/Pindare moist forests to the east. It is crossed by the Trans-Amazonian Highway (BR-230) from east to west, and by the BR-422 highway along the Tocantins. Most of the land along these roads has been deforested and replaced by pasture or farm fields. The remaining forest has been stripped of