Brazilian airline jet seized in Miami RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (AP) =97 A Brazilian-bound Varig airlines jet was=20 seized at the Miami airport on Thursday by the leasing company that owns=20 it. Varig spokesman Paulo Cesar Fonseca said the Boeing 767 was among 13=20 planes the airline leased from General Electric Capital Aviation Services.= =20 Varig intended to return it to the leasing company, Fonseca said. He said=20 he didn't know if Varig owed the company money. Passengers on the flight to= =20 Rio de Janeiro were transferred to other Brazil-bound flights, Fonseca=20 said. "We had told the company we were planning to return the planes and we= =20 have entered into contact with the company to learn why it was seized,"=20 Fonseca said. In January, a division of insurance giant American=20 International Group repossessed a Boeing 777 from Varig at Paris' Charles=20 de Gaulle airport for lack of payments. Brazil's airlines have been hit=20 hard by a slump in demand caused by a sluggish economy and a plunge in=20 travel following the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States. Varig is=20 struggling under more than $746 million in debt. Brazilian regulators have= =20 asked the company to restate financial results for 2001 and the first half= =20 of 2002, after officials found $359 million in accounting errors. Last=20 month, the airline announced it would merge with another Brazilian airline,= =20 TAM, to create a new carrier. The merger follows years of financial=20 troubles and a steep plunge in business. *************************************************** The owner of Roger's Trinbago Site/TnTisland.com Roj (Roger James) escape email mailto:ejames@escape.ca Trinbago site: www.tntisland.com Carib Brass Ctn site www.tntisland.com/caribbeanbrassconnection/ Steel Expressions www.mts.net/~ejames/se/ Site of the Week: http://www.dbombo.net/muddyangels/ TnT Webdirectory: http://search.co.tt *********************************************************