Brazilian judge convicts US pilots in 2006 midair

[MikeD]

SAO PAULO – A Brazilian federal judge has convicted two American pilots for their role in an airline crash that killed 154 people, but ordered them to perform more than four years of community service in the U.S. instead of going to prison.

Federal Judge Murilo Mendes said in his ruling that pilots Joseph Lepore of Bay Shore, New York, and Jan Paladino of Westhampton Beach, New York, were negligent for not verifying that anti-collision equipment and a device that would have alerted controllers to their location were functioning in the Embraer Legacy 600 executive jet they were flying. They have both denied that accusation.

Mendes sentenced them late Monday to four years and four months in prison, but commuted that sentence to the same amount of time carrying out unspecified community service in the United States. Mendes also said their pilots' licenses were suspended for the time they would do community service, but it was not clear if that order would be valid outside Brazil.

The failures that led to the 2006 crash have been bitterly disputed by controllers, pilots, judges and aviation officials.

The Americans' business jet collided with a Boeing 737 operated by Gol Lineas Aereas, Intelligentes SA. The smaller plane, owned by Ronkonkoma, New York-based ExcelAire Service Inc., landed safely while the larger jet crashed into the jungle, killing all aboard.

Lepore and Paladino faced charges in Brazil of negligence and endangering air traffic safety for allegedly flying at the wrong altitude and failing to turn on the aircraft's anti-collision system. The judge convicted them of impeding the safe navigation of an airplane......(continued)

Story here:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110517/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_brazil_plane_crash

 

[ackeight]

How can he uphold the punishment outside Brazil? This is just an all around crappy thing that has a lot of finger pointing. What would have happened if it was the other way around and the delivery plane crashed and airliner survived?

 

[CirrusMonkey]

Yeah, who would be their Brazillian Parolle Officer in the US??

 

[boondr]

I still can't get over how many factors played a role in this accident.

The two glaring things that stand out to me are:1) the fact the Brazilian ATC scopes default to the altitude an aircraft "should" be at in the event altitude/transponder information is not received. WTF?????
2) How low the odds are that the aircraft would have been EXACTLY in the same spot had just one of them had a LESS sophisticated navigation system. They were in exactly the same spot because they were cleared there and their precision navigation systems kept them there.

Weird how the advancement of technology played such a critical role in this simply from the failure of one piece of it.


To blame the two pilots for this, regardless of whether they accidentally turned the transponder off or not, is asinine and is ignoring the glaring weakness in a system that completely fails because one element in missing.

 

[Cptnchia]

To blame the two pilots for this, regardless of whether they accidentally turned the transponder off or not, is asinine and is ignoring the glaring weakness in a system that completely fails because one element in missing.

Because if it wasn't the yankee pilot's fault, then it would have been the fault of the Brazilian Government through faulty equipment and poorly trained controllers.

 

[boondr]

Because if it wasn't the yankee pilot's fault, then it would have been the fault of the Brazilian Government through faulty equipment and poorly trained controllers.

You mean the same Brazilian Government that did the investigation?

 

[upup89]

The plane is sitting in CLE and it looks good considering how bad the 73 got it. Its a shame all around. It appears that they are looking for someone or something to blame for what was once there worst aviation accident.

 

[Apophis]

Technically, how can Brazil even enforce this? Is the FAA going to suspend the pilots' certificates on behalf of Brazil? As long as the pilots in question never travel to Brazil again, whose to say they can't give this judge the proverbial middle finger, and keep on flying?

 

[Muff3n]

This is outrageous in my opinion. If the pilots are back in the United States now I am not really sure if they can even force this ruling though. I am no lawyer, I am interested to hear what the more informed have to say on the subject, this seems like a really dumb ruling though.

 

[moxiepilot]

Technically, how can Brazil even enforce this? Is the FAA going to suspend the pilots' certificates on behalf of Brazil? As long as the pilots in question never travel to Brazil again, whose to say they can't give this judge the proverbial middle finger, and keep on flying?

I think that's the point, brazil is "saving face" and the pilots go back to the us to continue flying. Other country politicking and culture...

 

[queeno]

Funny that those that caused this , management of the Brazilian ATC system get away with out blame. when you have a system thats set up to fail, dont be suprised when it dose.

 

[pntbllr233]

Is this the same Brazil that got awarded two of the biggest sporting events in the world? I hope they can get their stuff together before game time.

 

[///AMG]

Yeah hopefully they quietly took the lessons learned (on their end) on board, in spite of what macho latin-american culture expects them to say publicly.

 

[ChasenSFO]

I followed this fairly closely. In my opinion, sending the pilots back to America with community service was Brazil's quiet admission of guilt. I doubt they'll see a day of that community service.

 

[embraer07]

So I guess the fact that the Legacy pilots inadvertently turned off their transponder and didn't even realize it, then proceeded to fly at the wrong altitude for that particular airway played no role in the collision... Right?

There is plenty of blame to go around, and the two legacy pilots share some of it without a doubt. The only ones who did nothing wrong are the only ones to die: the crew and passengers of the GOL 737. They are the only innocent people in this story.

 

[boondr]

So I guess the fact that the Legacy pilots inadvertently turned off their transponder and didn't even realize it, then proceeded to fly at the wrong altitude for that particular airway played no role in the collision... Right?

There is plenty of blame to go around, and the two legacy pilots share some of it without a doubt. The only ones who did nothing wrong are the only ones to die: the crew and passengers of the GOL 737. They are the only innocent people in this story.

Nobody knows if they turned it off or not, and they were at the altitude ASSIGNED by ATC.

 

[embraer07]

Nobody knows if they turned it off or not, and they were at the altitude ASSIGNED by ATC.

They mention on the cvr the transponder is off... After the collision happened. Despite what you may have heard, they were in radar contact the entire time. ATC had no idea what their altitude was due to the transponder being off and loss of radio communication.

As for altitude they were at the last assigned altitude before losing radio communication. The problem is that after losing communications they continued on their assigned flight plan which took them on a different airway with a different MEA for their direction of flight.

 

[MikeD]

Can't remember offhand the flight condition, but if it was VMC, see and avoid would apply too.

 

[boondr]

They mention on the cvr the transponder is off... After the collision happened. Despite what you may have heard, they were in radar contact the entire time. ATC had no idea what their altitude was due to the transponder being off and loss of radio communication.

As for altitude they were at the last assigned altitude before losing radio communication. The problem is that after losing communications they continued on their assigned flight plan which took them on a different airway with a different MEA for their direction of flight.

ATC is supposed know what altitude they were assigned. They can't just climb/descend at their own whim. The fact the they noticed the transponder was off after the collision has no bearing whatsoever on how it got turned off. They were at FL370, I doubt the MEA was any higher. The altitude for direction of flight was wrong but once again that is on ATC.

 

[BlueMoon]

In October, a military court convicted air traffic controller Jomarcelo Fernandes dos Santos, an air force sergeant, to 14 months in jail for failing to take action when he saw that the Legacy's anti-collision system had been turned off. Four other controllers were acquitted for lack of proof. That conviction is being appealed.

Strange that the guy who assigned the wrong altitude that ultimately led to the collision was only given 14 months in jail. Yet, the pilots were given 4 years and commuted it to community service.

Scape goat the foreigners. Glad they got to leave Brazil and didn't go back. Hopefully they keep flying.