Brazil seeks indictment of U.S. pilots

Jackson News-Tribune ^ | May 25, 2007 | Michael Astor

[billorites]

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil - A prosecutor on Friday sought formal charges against two U.S. pilots and four Brazilian air traffic controllers involved in the South American country‘s worst-ever air disaster, which left 154 people dead.

Lepore, 42, and Paladino, 34, were flying an Embraer Legacy 600 executive jet on Sept. 29, 2006 when it collided with a Boeing 737 operated by Gol Linhas Aereas Intelligentes SA, sending the larger plane crashing into the rain forest and killing everyone onboard.

Lepore and Paladino were detained in Brazil for two months and allowed to leave only after promising to return for any court action. But a local lawyer for the pilots said it was unclear whether they would have to go back.

Violato said the judge‘s decision about whether to indict the pilots could come at any time. In Brazil, there are no grand juries and judges decide whether to proceed with prosecutions.

Joel R. Weiss, an American lawyer representing the pilots, said they are innocent.

Brazilian authorities have conceded in recent weeks that the air traffic controllers on duty at the time of the crash share some blame. But they maintain that the pilots should have noticed that the Legacy‘s transponder was not transmitting a signal with its location for 55 minutes before the collision.

"The prosecutor has prematurely reached a conclusion before the true experts, the civil aeronautics investigators, have fully investigated this matter," Weiss said.

Previously police had said they could only be charged in military courts.

Earlier this week, the president of Brazil‘s air traffic controllers union told a congressional commission that the country‘s controllers are poorly trained in English — the universal language for air traffic communications — and that blind spots exist in Brazil‘s radar coverage.

[Moose4]

If their transponder failed, the pilots may or may not have known there was a problem—and if it did, you’d think that ATC would’ve been all over it, because planes suddenly disappearing off radar is something that should obviously raise an alarm.

Still, I believe one of the planes was traveling at an invalid altitude. I’m not sure how they do it in Brazil, but under new rules in the US and a lot of the rest of the world, planes traveling east fly at odd thousands of feet (31,000, 33,000, etc.) and planes traveling west fly at even thousands (32,000, 34,000, etc.) A thousand feet is plenty of vertical separation. One of those planes was at the wrong altitude, and I’m guessing it was the Embraer if their transponder wasn’t working. (Transponders transmit the plane’s altitude back to the radar—without them, the radar can’t determine the plane’s altitude, it just shows a dot.)

}:-)4

[billorites]

There's a heavy whiff of politics in the whole business.

More recent news Here

[BillM]

ATC can and does give block airspace clearances. These clearances allow all altitudes in the block to be use regardless of direction.

Initial reports suggested that this was the case here.

[Flintlock]

Third world crapola.
We should cut off their aircraft from US airspace untill this is dropped.

[zipper]

Yes, they (Legacy crew) were cruising at the “wrong” altitude for the direction they were flying, FL370, because ATC assigned them that altitude.

[bboop]

I keep thinking — they are trying to get US money, somehow.

[bboop]

I keep thinking — they are trying to get US money, somehow.

[sourcery]

Apparently, Nifong has a twin in Brazil.

[theymakemesick]

It's been a while for me but it used to be that at FL290 vertical separation was always in 2000 foot increments: FL290 north through east, FL310 south through west, FL330 north through east, etc., never an even-thousand increment. More recently, I don't recall hearing a flight crew anounce an even-thousand cruise altitude when westbound, could be wrong there too.

Regarding transponders, on my first student XC I planned to fly through an ARSA (again, a long time ago) and was denied clearance because I couldn't identify. Had to deviate the entire long leg and replan in the air. What a lesson! If the transponder isn't working, ATC would know it, not the pilot.

[Moose4]

They implemented “reduced vertical separation minimums” a couple years ago in North American airspace, that made the “east odd, west even” rule applicable. It had been in effect in Europe for several years. That’s how I understand it anyway.

}:-)4

[theymakemesick]

Thanks for the update! Probably due to better electronics on the ground and in the cockpit.