Brazil - Colliding With Death at 37,000 Feet, and Living (NYTimes reporter aboard Embraer)

The New York Times (excerpt) ^ | October 3, 2006 | Joe Sharkey

[HAL9000]

Excerpt -

SÃO JOSE DOS CAMPOS, Brazil, Oct. 1 — It had been an uneventful, comfortable flight.

With the window shade drawn, I was relaxing in my leather seat aboard a $25 million corporate jet that was flying 37,000 feet above the vast Amazon rainforest. The 7 of us on board the 13-passenger jet were keeping to ourselves.

Without warning, I felt a terrific jolt and heard a loud bang, followed by an eerie silence, save for the hum of the engines.

~ snip ~

[Moonman62]

The article mentions that the 737 took a drastic evasion maneuver to avoid hitting the Embraer jet. I suspect that it was mostly the aftermath of this action, in addition to minor wing damage, that caused the 737 to spiral in.

I remember reading a report about a 747 over the Pacific that gradually lost airspeed at high altitude (I think the crew had fallen asleep) until it stalled. The crew was barely able to recover before crashing. Maybe because of the thin air at high altitude, big aircraft can lose altitude at a surprisingly rapid rate.

[Toby06]

the last one on that page is quite impressive!

[Eastbound]

I think I'd rather hear, 'Impact! Impact! Impact! Fasten seat belts! Auto-pilot taking evasive action.'

[leadpenny]

[Brazilian] Court Wants Two Pilots' Passports Seized

Cross reference.

[SmoothTalker]

Thanks for the article. Really amazing stuff. I'm glad to see the NYT can occasionally be good for something.