U.S. Pilots Convicted In Brazil

The two pilots who were flying an Embraer Legacy 600 jet that collided with a Boeing 737 at 37,000 feet above the Amazon jungle in 2006 were convicted of negligence in a Brazilian court late on Monday. The judge said the pilots, Joseph Lepore and Jan Paul Paladino, failed to adequately check that their transponder was working. Federal judge Merilo Mendes gave them a four-year sentence, but then suspended it and instead required them to do four years of community service in the U.S., where they have been since shortly after the accident. The two pilots testified during the trial via video link. Mendes also suspended their pilot certificates for four years. It's not clear whether those suspensions can be enforced.

An NTSB investigation into the crash found Brazil's air traffic controllers mainly at fault, for putting the two airplanes on a collision course. A Brazilian investigation parceled out blame to both ATC and the cockpit crew. All 154 people on board the 737 died. The Legacy jet was damaged but the pilots managed to land it safely at a remote jungle airfield. A lawyer for the pilots said he would appeal the ruling in Brazil's courts, according to the Associated Press. A lawyer representing the families of those who died also said he would appeal, to seek prison time for the pilots.

“failed to adequately check that their transponder was working”

What a bunch of nonsense. They are assigned a transponder code before they take-off, are identified by ATC after take-off, climb and are transferred between ATC controllers and each controller acknowledges the ident.

Brazilian ATC screwed up big time. The ATC controllers were negligent and people died. There is NO FAULT to the pilots.

Sheesh. . .and then imposing “community service” to be served in the US? Bwahahahahaha. . . like that will actually mean anything. Suspend the pilots licenses? Bwahahahahahahahaha. . . like the FAA will go along with that.

Obama is drooling over this. . .he is thrilled at the prospect of subverting US sovereignty to some corrupt third-world court.

FINDINGS.

1. The Sector 5 controller initiated the handoff of N600XL to Sector 7 at an unusually early point, prior to a navigational fix at which a level change should have been assigned.

2. ATC did not issue a level change instruction to N600XL at or prior to crossing Brasilia..

3. The controllers at Sector 5 and Sector 7 were unaware of the status of N600XL’s altitude clearance, and did not take positive action to provide an amended clearance, confirmation, or appropriate coordination..

4. The automatic change of the datablock field from “cleared altitude” to “requested altitude” without any indication to, or action by, the ATCOs, led to the misunderstanding by the Sector 7 controller about what altitude clearance was issued to N600XL..

5. The collision avoidance technology aboard the aircraft did not function, likely due to inadvertant inactivation of the transponder on N600XL..

6. The flight crew of N600XL did not notice the inactive status of the transponder..

7. ATC did not take appropriate action in response to the loss of N600XL’s transponder..

8. The automatic display of an altitude value (“3D”) which is invalid for ATC use reinforced the incorrect assumptions that N600XL was descending..

9. ATC continued to apply RVSM separation standards despite a lack of mode C transponder altitude information..

10. Neither ATC nor the flight crew recognized the significance of the long time period without two-way communication to N600XL..

11. The flight crew of N600XL did not recognize the significance of the long time period spent at a non-standard cruise altitude for the flight direction..

12. ATC did not take adequate action to timely correct a known lost communication situation with N600XL..

13. Incorrect frequency utilization and ATC sector configuration within the CINDACTA contributed to the breakdown in communication with N600XL and the accident sequence of events..

4 14. The Sector 07 controller did not inform Amazonic ACC of the lost communication and non-transponder status of N600XL..

15. DECEA did not provide adequate training and supervision to develop effective skills for the ATCOs to appropriately handle this situation..

16. The evidence does not fully support the conclusion that the crew of N600XL’s flight planning, or amount of time spent planning, contributed directly to the accident..

PROBABLE CAUSE.

The evidence collected during this investigation strongly supports the conclusion that this accident was caused by N600XL and GLO1907 following ATC clearances which directed them to operate in opposite directions on the same airway at the same altitude resulting in a midair collision. The loss of effective air traffic control was not the result of a single error, but of a combination of numerous individual and institutional ATC factors, which reflected systemic shortcomings in emphasis on positive air traffic control concepts..

Contributing to this accident was the undetected loss of functionality of the airborne collision avoidance system technology as a result of the inadvertent inactivation of the transponder on board N600XL..

Further contributing to the accident was inadequate communication between ATC and the N600XL flight crew..

looking into the mid-21st century, it might be a nicer place to be than the US

Crazy...I used to live there...my ex wife is from there...my two daughters are half citizens

Brasil is Godawful in places and is precisely where we are headed due to uncontrolled immigration and having more who don't contribute than do

and huge racial fractiousness there which cripples them contrary to the myth of harmony propped up by Pele ads

I cannot fathom when I see folks here make that claim about Brasil

Brazil is a lot more than Avenida Paulista in Sao Paulo or Sao Coraodo in Rio or Buzios...it is ungovernable in most huge slums and in the vast interior and if you have any money you require security like you cannot imagine

and the dearth of decent healthcare...little decent public education, no civil rights, smog, traffic beyond belief...rich folks in Sao Paulo travel by chopper around town...imagine

and corruption...and lack of sensitivity over death...I have seen dead children on the side of the road for a day...no one stops...fear...can you imagine that here

Brasil has every geographic advantage we have ..maybe more...but it was settled poorly and 30 percent were slaves who have never made the Great Leap Forward..plus an indigenous population far greater than was ours...toss all that together and we should be glad we were colonized like we were and had our demographic mix that has worked...at least till now

/rant

The pilots did somehow manage to inactivate the transponder. That’s a factual finding. Yes, the primary fault was with Brazilian ATC, but the pilots did make a mistake that was one of the factors in the crash. They were, however, following the clearance they were given.

That said, the FAA should take action against the pilot’s licenses based on the NTSB findings, not on some Brazilian court ruling—and I expect that would mean no action at all. As for “community service” in the US, that’s horsecrap.

}:-)4

Apparently you are a pilot, so correct me if my memory is faulty.

I quit 10 years ago, but when I was flying ATC in the US was very attentive to transponder codes and readouts.

If your transponder quit, ATC could not get altitude readout and they don’t like that.

If ATC lost your transponder or if the altitude readout varied from your assigned altitude, they let you know immediately.

It has been so long since I have been in a radar facility that I have forgot whether the system can tag a non transponder target with all of the info.

But the point is that ATC is the first to know if your transponder quits or puts out information that is faulty or in variance with your assigned altitude or route.

So you are right. A face saving whitewash for the Brazilians....bad old gringos.

Two things can be wrong with a transponder:

1: It can not be creating code or altitude information, or displaying incorrect information on the ATC controller's screen due to a technical fault. The pilots would not know this. The controllers would, as the information displayed woud not agree with position, course and altitude assignments.

2: The pilots forget to turn on the transponder or set the wrong code. Controlers would have seen this error at least 30 minutes before the accident.

Accident happened because controllers flew the a/c into each other. End of story.

Not correct.

The pilots were flying the assigned route and at the assigned altitude.

Therefore, they should have had the required separation from other aircraft whether the transponder was working or not.

Hundreds of thousands of aircraft flew hundreds of millions of miles on instrument flight plans before the transponder became available to civilian aircraft and even longer before its universal acceptance.

Yes, it was a lot more work for both pilot and controller but it proves that if the controller knows his job and the pilot flies the assigned route and altitude that planes will not collide.

I flew for a long time before I had a transponder. I had no mid air collisions.

I can prove it.

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