Brazilian ATC Indicted With Manslaughter Charges

Wow, I did not think legal matters regarding last September's mid-air collision over Brazil would go this far.

My understanding is that everything related to this incident was 100% an accident and I hope that the pilots and ATC do not face punishment.

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RIO DE JANEIRO -- A judge indicted two American pilots and four Brazilian air traffic controllers yesterday on manslaughter-related charges in Brazil's worst air disaster, court officials said.
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The American pilots have been called on to give preliminary depositions on Aug. 27, and the flight controllers have been called to testify a day later.
Prosecutors last week asked the judge to indict pilots Joseph Lepore, 42, of Bay Shore, N.Y., and Jan Paladino, 34, of Westhampton Beach, N.Y., with exposing an aircraft to danger resulting in death.

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http://washingtontimes.com/world/200706 ... -5128r.htm

Quote:

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Ellen Gracie Northfleet, the chief of the Brazilian Supreme Court (STF), told the president and the reporter of the Air Blackout Congressional Inquiry, House representatives Marcelo Castro and Marco Maia, that Brazil's Justice has no means to compel Americans Joe Lepore and Jan Paladino, the pilots of the Legacy executive jet, which collided with the Boeing 737 last September, to travel to Brazil to testify before the congressional committee.
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While three of the flight controllers are being charged with involuntary manslaughter, one of them is being accused of intentional manslaughter.
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In the court filing, prosecutor Thiago Lemos de Andrade stated that the negligence of the six men caused the collision between the Legacy and the Boeing. According to the charge, air controller Felipe Santos dos Reis gave wrong instructions to the American pilots, not telling them about the Legacy's altitude changes.

Jomarcelo Fernandes dos Santos, another air-controller indicted. was responsible for monitoring the area in which the Legacy jet was flying, about one thousand feet above the altitude it should be. Santos is accused of not alerting the US pilots about their wrong altitude.
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Lepore and Paladino are being charged mainly for their use of the transponder and for not following the written flight plan. The prosecution says that both didn't know how to use the plane's equipment and that they ended up turning the transponder off unintentionally.

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What a mess.

http://www.brazzilmag.com/content/view/8317/54/

Oh come on! It isn't the pilots fault.... They did what ATC told them to do and had no indication of any danger (I.e. TCAS)

They followed ATC directive. For over an hour they were flying towards that 737 at the directive of ATC and with no question. TCAS was inopp accoridng to the NTSB from what I have heard as well. Why should the pilots be brought up on this. Pothetic and corrupt is what it is. South America to begin with is not the most honest place as it is.

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Originally Posted by hiss srq

They followed ATC directive. For over an hour they were flying towards that 737 at the directive of ATC and with no question. TCAS was inopp accoridng to the NTSB from what I have heard as well. Why should the pilots be brought up on this. Pothetic and corrupt is what it is. South America to begin with is not the most honest place as it is.

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Exactly what I was trying to say. I guess I just couldn't get the words together.

My good friend is a judge in Brazil, (VERY honest person by the way), I will ask him what his take on all of this is. He is into aviation a little as well so I'm curious to see what he has to say.

This was all an accident and is a mess. I dont know but it looks like someone is trying to get publicity here. If the ATCs confess what they did was manslaughter( which I doubt was) still the pilots are not responsible as they were instructed to fly in that direction as stated above.

Why didn't the Anti collision tech work? - they're both new airliners.

Thanks in advance for anyone that knows.

TT

We do not know about the 737's TCAS because Brazil will not release that information but the Embraer is reported to have had a malfuntion that they were unaware of.

Just consulted with my friend from Brasil, its his personal opinion that its ATC's fault and teh government was acting in a guilty matter through the whole process. Obviosuly he has no relation to the case and he obviously doesnt have access to all of the information pertaining to the case.

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Originally Posted by AirtrafficController

This was all an accident and is a mess. I dont know but it looks like someone is trying to get publicity here.

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Publicity? :roll:

The only reason I could possibly fathom as to why they would put any blame on the pilots is because they were flying 1k feet above what they were supposed to be.

I am not sure about Brasil's ATC regs but I would assume that they are similar to the US's. I am not sure if they use RVSM. If they do then if they are at cruise altitude between FL290 and FL410 with a heading of 000-179 then they should fly at odd altitudes, if they are on a heading of 180-359 then they should be at even altitudes.

Obviously if you are off of your altitude by 1000 feet it could be a major problem.

Now why were they off by 1000 feet? Was the altimeter set wrong (ie 28.92 rather then 29.92 = aprox +1000 ft)?

Regardless, the ATC should have realized that the crew did not level off at the assigned altitude.

Just my 2 cents worth.

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Originally Posted by skipper

Now why were they off by 1000 feet? Was the altimeter set wrong (ie 28.92 rather then 29.92 = aprox +1000 ft)?

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The ERJ has a button called STD - for the transition altitude , push this button as you see in the picture at the bottom of the display and the altimeter resets it's display to 29.92in/1013hg

http://www.airliners.net/open.file/0667675/L/

Darrell