Dans Papers - May 25, 2007 - Brazilian Airplane Crash Prove Goes Forward

Last Wednesday, the investigation of Brazil's worst air disaster -- allegedly caused by two Long Island pilots -- concluded, placing blame on three of ten air-traffic controllers who were on duty during the crash and the two pilots, Joseph Lepore of Bay Shore and Jan Paladino of Westhampton Beach. The two pilots have agreed to return to Brazil to face charges and are awaiting the decision of the Brazilian military police as to whether their presence will be required and what sentence they will receive for causing the death of all 154 people on the Boeing 737 that their Embraer Legacy jet's wing clipped on September 29.

Sources indicate that the text of the pilots' conversation at the time of the accident does not support the claim that the pilots had been trying to reach air-traffic control but were unable to, as per their original story.

These findings were released -- along with the 112-page manuscript of the cockpit recordings, put together by the United States National Transportation Safety Board -- to a federal court in Brooklyn that is currently fielding the lawsuits filed by victims' families against ExcelAir, who owned the jet Paladino and Lepore were piloting, and Honeywell, the company that made the recalled transponder original blamed for the lack of communication between the pilots and Brazilian air-traffic control.

The suit, prepared by the San Francisco law firm Lieff, Cabraser, Heimann & Bernstein, faults the pilots for not noticing that their transponder had stopped working because they were preoccupied with trying to figure out how the instruments on their new plane worked while the plane was running on autopilot.

Aviation experts in support of the Long Island pilots claim that it was the air traffic controllers' responsibility to re-route the Boeing when they were unable to contact the small Embraer Legacy jet, since only air-traffic control was able to identify the position of both crafts prior to the accident.

Part of the cockpit recordings were leaked to the Brazilian media and these exerpts served not only to exacerbate the already negative feelings of the Brazilian public against the pilots, but also to clarify the misunderstandings that transpired on the day of the crash. In the recordings, the pilots appear to be having a difficult time understanding the air traffic controllers, saying, "they're speaking English, but it's tough." Fifteen minutes later, the pilots realized that they could not reach air traffic control and one pilot is heard saying, "I got a radio problem here." At the moment of impact, the conversation in the cockpit turned frantic.

"What the hell was that?"

"All right, just fly the airplane, dude..."

"Do we have a wing tip?"

"We hit something, man. We hit another airplane. I don't know where the f*#$% it came from."

"I never saw it, dude."

As the aircraft touched down for an emergency landing at a Brazilian Air Force base, the pilots are heard congratulating each other on the landing, exclaiming, "good job" and "we're alive" over the sound of the passengers clapping and cheering in the background.

The transcript also reveals that both the pilots and the controllers made mistakes that led to the crash. While the pilots had not settled on a flight plan until they were already in the air, the controllers did not begin radioing the Legacy jet until minutes before the accident, making it impossible for them to re-route the larger jet once they had realized that the Legacy's radio was not functioning properly.

The Brazilian government has not released the transcripts of the controllers' calls as of yet. However, Brazilian police have decided that the two New York pilots should be charged with "placing an aircraft in jeopardy" and have requested that the pilots return to Brazil to face the charges. Although both pilots have agreed to return to Brazil, they are awaiting instruction as to when they will be required to return, if at all.