Dan's Papers - June 15, 2007 - Westhampton Pilots Won't Have To Go To Brazil

Last week, a Brazilian judge charged two Long Island pilots with "unintentional negligent endangerment of an aircraft" due to their involvement in the collision between two aircraft flying over the Amazon. One plane, a Brazilian commercial Boeing 737 jet, crashed and killed all 154 passengers on board. Jan Paladino of Westhampton Beach and Joseph Lepore of Bay Shore, the pilots of the small Embraer Legacy jet that hit the Boeing 737, and their passengers landed safely and unharmed. Although there have been rumors that the pilots would be required to return to Brazil to face their charges, Joel R. Weiss, the lawyer representing both pilots in the United States, said that although he had not yet seen a translation of the judge's ruling, he has already been "informed by Brazilian co-council that, based on Brazilian and international law, the pilots would be permitted to testify in the United States for the Brazilian judge's review." Furthermore, Weiss maintains that the extradition treaty between the United States and Brazil "does not allow extradition of Brazilian citizens or American citizens on this specific charge." When asked if there were benefit to his clients' returning to Brazil to face their charges, Weiss made it clear that he would "prefer not to comment on that." In his clients' defense, Weiss insisted that "the pilots are innocent. They were completely competent throughout the entire flight."

Along with the pilots, four air traffic controllers have been charged in the case. While three of the four controllers were charged with "unintentional negligent endangerment of an aircraft," the fourth air traffic controller, Jomarcelo Fernandes dos Santos, was charged with "intentional endangerment of an aircraft" due to his exceptionally poor judgement in the hour prior to the accident. It was his actions that would ultimately set the two planes on a collision course. His first negligent action came when he saw that the Embraer Legacy jet was flying at a different altitude than their preliminary flight plan suggested. Thinking this was a machine error, Santos changed the settings on his equipment to reflect that the Legacy was flying at the altitude specified on the flight plan, not their actual altitude. Marcello also failed to notice that the Legacy's transponder had turned off, making it impossible for the Legacy's pilots to communicate with air traffic control. On a controller's screen, a plane appears as an "X" with a circle around it. If the circle disappears, the plane's transponder is not sending out a signal, the sight of which should prompt the air traffic controller to try to get in touch with that plane's pilots immediately. According to Weiss, "in the aviation world, it is understood that the primary responsibility for monitoring transponder function lies with air traffic controllers, not pilots."

Although the pilots' lawyer expects to have a translation of the judge's indictment by this week, it is unclear as to whether his clients will return to Brazil and what the ultimate outcome of any pending trial will be.