The Brazilian ATC scopes default to display the altitude an aircraft is "supposed" to be assigned(IE the altitude that was not assigned) The controller(s) thought the Legacy was at the altitude displayed. That is a retarded system problem.
That is definately a jacked up way of doing things.
Let's get the facts straight on this one.
http://www.vanityfair.com/magazine/2009/01/air_crash200901?printable=true¤tPage=all
Plus, had a plane piloted by foreign pilots brought down a Delta or American 737 somehwere over Nebraksa everybody here (and the media) would be burning those pilots at the stake.
Well if you want to get the facts out I wouldn't excatly quote Vanity Fair. Crap that was a long article filled with a bunch of useless crap to entertain.
Here is a link to the NTSB report of the facts.
http://dms.ntsb.gov/aviation/AccidentReports/g30bnhaslz0tkgv2lwzr2qex/K05222011120000.pdf
A lot happened to bring the two planes together. I agree that the Boeing is just about guilt free and of course the pax are innocent. Both crews technically were allowing themselves to be distracted from the task at hand by donig non-essential tasks.
The Boeing crew was showing pictures, etc and had they been looking outside they may have spoted the legacy in time. We will never know and it may not have mattered at those closing speeds.
The Embraer crew appears to be less than proficient on the plane and could have used a few more hours in the lab playing with the boxes. I was trained by Flight Safety on the Primus Epic suite for the E170 and was fully comfortable using it when I left for IOE. Extra training was available for those that wanted it. They also allowed themsevles to both be distracted from flying the jet for a long period of time.
The NORDO is easy to understand overseas. It has happened to me in Mexico due to a forgotten handoff by ATC. You keep hearing conversations you don't understand as they are in a foreign language and you assume it is two way comms. The crew also made 12-19 radio calls trying to restablish comms late in the flight. But ATC had some receivers turned off that prevented contact from being made.
The primary cause of the accident IMHO is ineffective ATC procedures and equiement design. The underlying cause is the TCAS getting switch off some how either by the crew or by a system glitch. ATC could have prevented this accident including calling the aircraft SAT PHONE....
The sentence seems to indicate the gov't thinks the controlers were mainly to blame as they are not trying to get the pilots back to put them in jail but sentenced to community service. Which who knows if the US or FAA will enforce.
Let's just hope they learn from the accident and fix the RADAR oddities and ATC procedures.
Also, did they every find anthing out in the testing of the avionics. I know E170's electronics had a lot of bugs in it. Did the pilots turn off the TCAS or did it turn itself off?
On another note, would it be wise for aircrews to start flying 1/2 or 1 mile offsets to the right on the routes overseas? This woud prevent a head-on on the airway in the event two planes line up like this again.
