A disconnected thrust reverser on the airliner which overshot a runway in Brazil emerged today as a possible factor in the crash in which 190 people were killed.

The pilot of an airliner that burst into flames after trying to land on a short, rain-slicked runway apparently tried to take off again, barely clearing rush-hour traffic on a major highway. The death toll rose today to 189 and could climb higher.

An executive jet failed to follow its flight plan when it collided with a commercial airliner in September, killing 154 people in Brazil’s worst air disaster, an Air Force investigator said today.

There were no survivors among the 155 people on board the Brazilian jetliner that was in collision with a smaller plane and crashed in the Amazon rainforest in the nation’s worst air disaster.