A missing Brazilian airliner with 155 people on board crashed on a farm near a remote Amazon town in the central state of Mato Grosso on Friday, the local mayor said.

The report could not immediately be confirmed by other authorities.

The Gol airline passenger plane disappeared over the Amazon jungle after colliding with a small plane, the company and news reports said.

Gol flight 1907, flying from the principle Amazon city of Manaus bound for the national capital Brasilia, disappeared after losing radar contact, the company said.

The head of Brazil's airports authority, Infraero, said the Gol aircraft collided with another smaller plane, Globo news agency reported.

The smaller plane, an executive jet, was able to land in a town called Serra do Cachimbo even though it suffered wing damage, Globo reported. Cachimbo is deep in the jungle about midway between Manaus and Brasilia.

Brazil's civil aviation authority said the plane was transporting 155 people and lost contact around the town of Sao Felix do Araguaia, also in the remote jungle.

Gol is a low-cost carrier that has expanded rapidly in recent years to become Brazil's number two airline and to offer flights to neighboring countries.

With its orange and white colors and stylized casual uniforms based on U.S. no-thrills carriers, it is an instantly recognizable brand in Brazil and one of its most successful new businesses.

Manaus is host to a number of foreign-owned manufacturing plants making motorcycles, computers and other goods in its duty free zone. It is also a base for tourism in the Amazon, the world's largest rain forest, and a headquarters for several environmental groups.

(CRIENGLISH.com via Reuters September 30, 2006)