Brazil’s Supreme Court recently upheld the conviction of U.S. pilots Joe Lepore and Jan Paul Paladino in the September 2006 midair over the Amazon that brought down a Gol Linhas Aéreas 737 with 154 people aboard.
In Brazil last week, a judge handed down 52-month jail sentences to Joe Lepore and Jan Paladino, the two U.S. pilots of a Legacy executive jet that collided mid-flight with a Gol Airlines 737 over Brazil five years ago. The Brazilian-built Legacy survived the crash, limping to an emergency landing at a military base. The 737 plummeted into the Amazon jungle killing all 154 people on board. Brazil says the pilots may substitute community service for actual time in prison, but also ruled that the men’s Federal Aviation Administration pilot certificates be revoked.
Brazilian authorities maintain that Lepore and Paladino had — inadvertently or otherwise — switched off their jet’s transponder, in turn rendering an anti-collision alarm, called TCAS, inoperative as well. The two pilots deny this, though pilots of the commercial variant of the Legacy have noted that the location of transponder controls makes accidental shut-offs relatively easy. This could explain why neither crew received a TCAS warning as the planes closed in on each other.
What it does not explain, however, is how and why the flights were put, and left, on a collision course to begin with. Press reports of the ruling have focused almost exclusively on the charges against Lepore and Paladino, neglecting to mention the fact that Brazilian air traffic control was also held accountable. Controller Lucivando Tiburcio de Alencar was sentenced to 40 months in prison for incompetence.
Shortly after the accident, representatives of the Montreal-based International Federation of Air Traffic Controllers’ Associations visited the ATC facility in whose airspace the collision occurred. In a prepared statement, IFATCA officials said they were “very much surprised” by what they saw there, describing ATC equipment and protocols as poorly designed and unsafe. An investigation by the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board later cited faulty air traffic control protocols as the primary cause of the catastrophe.
Brazilian ATC, which is administered by the country’s air force, has been under intense scrutiny ever since. Have things improved? Not according to a confidential report obtained by the Brazilian newsweekly Epoca, which highlights continued deficiencies in training and procedures. Controllers are undertrained and overworked, the report cites. “There have been improvements in relation to 2006,” said Edleuzo Cavalcante, president of the Brazilian Association of Air Traffic Controllers. “But today’s air traffic is more complex. We have a stage that is set for the occurrence of new problems.”
For what it’s worth, I have flown through Brazilian airspace many times. The quality of ATC around big cities like Rio or São Paulo feels little different from what you’ll find in Europe or the United States. Over remote areas, however, it’s more challenging. Amazonica Control is the agency in charge of most airspace over the immense Amazon basin. Here, radar coverage is sometimes unreliable and controllers can be difficult to reach, often sounding as if they’re talking through a tin can and string. Confirming even simple instructions can take multiple attempts.
Brazilian sentences of less than four years are served in an “open regime,” similar to a halfway house or, if unavailable, a less restrictive alternative such as probation. Equally, speculation in the press about extradition to Brazil is unfounded, as there is ample precedent to ensure that the sentence would be served in the U.S.
The federal trial court in Sinop, Mato Grosso, had imposed an alternative penalty of suspension of the pilots’ airman certificates, highlighted in Brazilian press coverage of the recent final ruling. However, legal sources close to the case told AIN that since appeals courts had rejected alternative penalties, license suspension is not part of the sentence. In addition, the FAA declined to enforce a similar administrative decision by its Brazilian equivalent, ANAC.
Two air traffic controllers who failed to avert the collision received lighter sentences in Brazil’s federal and military courts. Despite a request from the Sinop judge for indictment of the controller who issued the clearance that put the Legacy on a collision course, prosecutors failed to move against him.
News & Image Sources: Internet