FlyerJosh

The good news is that it sounds like these guys are able to come home. The bad news is the dangerous precedent is once again being set:

from cnn.com:

American pilots charged in Amazon jetliner crash
POSTED: 1:31 p.m. EST, December 8, 2006

Story Highlights
• Americans were piloting small jet that collided with 737
• Small plane landed safely, but 154 killed on jetliner
• Pilots head for U.S., but required to return for trial

SAO PAULO, Brazil (AP) -- Brazilian federal police on Friday charged two New York pilots involved in a collision that killed 154 people with exposing an aircraft to danger.

The charges could carry a penalty of 12 years in prison.

Joseph Lepore, 42, of Bay Shore, and Jan Paladino, 34, Westhampton Beach, were questioned by police for six hours and then were allowed to pick up their passports and leave the country, but they are required to return for their trial.

The two pilots told police they would reply in court, and did not speak to media after questioning.

Police had seized their passports after the September 29 crash to prevent them from leaving the country, and they had been staying in a hotel on Rio's Copacabana Beach. But a Brazilian court released their passports this week, saying there were no legal grounds for restricting their movements.

Lepore and Paladino were piloting a Brazilian-made Legacy executive jet when it collided with a Gol Airlines Boeing 737-800 heading south over the Amazon jungle. All 154 people aboard the Gol flight were killed, while the Legacy landed safely with all seven people aboard unharmed.

The Legacy, owned by ExcelAire of Ronkonkoma, New York, was heading northwest on its maiden voyage from the southern city of Sao Jose dos Campos to the United States when the accident occurred at an altitude of 37,000 feet, usually reserved for flights headed in the opposite direction.

Transcripts suggest the Legacy had been authorized by the tower in Sao Jose dos Campos to fly at 37,000 feet to Manaus, although that contradicted the plane's original flight plan.

Warning systems failed on both planes before they collided, an air force investigator said last month.

Air traffic controllers believed the Legacy was flying at 36,000 feet at the time it collided with Gol Flight 1907, Brig. Gen. Luiz Carlos da Silva Bueno recently told a Senate committee.

But "at departure, air traffic control cleared the Legacy to Manaus at 37,000 feet," ExcelAire lawyer Robert Torricella said at the time. "Absent a contrary clearance by air traffic control, the Legacy was required to remain at that altitude."

The lawyer for the pilots, former Justice Minister Jose Carlos Dias, said the pilots picked up their passports and were taken to Guarulhos airport for a charter flight to the United States.

Dias called the police decision "biased" and "discriminatory," and said police were simply "looking for someone to blame for the crime." He added that if the factors leading to the fatal collision were considered unintentional, the maximum penalty would fall to four years in prison.

FlyerJosh

This is what scares me the most. If the factors were unintentional, and no crime or undue negligence was committed, why is there even remotely a potential for charges in the first place?

If these charges hold, it amounts to saying that if in the normal course of your job, while abiding with all regulations and established SOPs, you end up being a party to an accident, you may be charged with involuntary manslaughter.

This opens up the door to a VERY dangerous and slippery slope. If this is actually allowed to proceed it's not unforseeable that the crew of a heavy jet could be prosecuted for knocking an aircraft down with their wake turbulence, even though separation was the responsibility of the controller and the smaller aircraft. There are many other potential "gotchas" in the system.

We all need to take action and speak up to end this circus. I know that I wouldn't be flying down there right now, especially considering the reports about air traffic chaos...

bravo24

What happens if they just don't go back?

cma2407

This scenario sounds eerily familiar. Two months ago, I was on a Fed Ex MD-11 from Campinas enroute to MEM. There are radio dead spots about an hour North of Sao Paolo (happened every trip, going and coming, for 3 months straight.) The controller--who could barely be heard--told us to climb to FL 370. All 3 of us heard it distinctly. However, TCAS showed traffic coming right down the airway at FL 350. We leveled passing 340--FINALLY got through to the controller--who then said he had cleared us to FL 330. Oops.

Bad radios, bad English, and magenta line GPS accuracy can be a lethal combination. Not for sure what happened here, but I've got a hunch.

Heads up all.

FlyerJosh

Then it depends on how big an international issue the US (politically) is willing to make it. Since Brazil is an ally (although ties politically seem to be shakier and shakier these days with various goverments in South America), one has to assume that the US would abide by established international treaties for extradition.

The president does however have the authority to step in and grant these guys protection (from extradition) if he feels that the charges being brought against them are baseless and unwarranted. The ultimate question is whether or not he would do so if it came down to it.

ToiletDuck

Brazil needs the US more than the US needs brazil.

Velocipede

Personally, I call in sick for every trip I'm scheduled to fly to Brazil.

757Driver

Just curious, how many of those do you fly in a 737-4/7/8/9 ???

AVIVIII

I would probably either purposely get arrested for something worse in the U.S. or take what $$$ I had, start a bogus company, buy a chunk of land, some big guns and a seaplane and live out in some Alaska Outpost.

Come and get me.

jetblaster

I flew to Brazil last month, about the time that all this hit the press. I vowed not to go back until these guys--Jan, who I know--got back and Brazil re-affirmed that they are proceeding under ICAO.

It is abundantly clear with this latest filing of criminal charges that Brazil is completely off the edge of the cliff on this one...and NOT in compliance with ICAO Annex 13.

Therefore...I will REFUSE to go to Brazil--no, I will not burn sick time to do it...I will refuse to go on the grounds that my freedom is endangered by going into what amounts to a third-world, hold-them-hostage country that is not in compliance with international agreements.

The equation just changed in Brazil, fellow pilots; think about it...no pilot union can get you out if Brazil wishes to hold you and then charge you...as Josh said...it could really unravel from here. The only way to be safe is...

..to Boycott Brazil.

Jetblaster