Brazilian Prosecutor to Seek Indictments

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (AP) – A Brazilian prosecutor planned to seek indictments Friday against two American pilots of an executive jet that collided with an airliner, killing all 154 people on board the commercial flight, his office said.Prosecutor Thiago Lemos de Andrade will seek an indictment against Joseph Lepore and Jan Paul Paladino, who were flying an Embraer Legacy 600 executive jet on its maiden voyage to the United States when it collided with a Boeing 737 over the Amazon rain forest on Sept. 29, said press officer Lenita Ciolato.The Boeing operated by Gol Linhas Aereas Intelligentes SA’s jet crashed in remote rain forest, killing all 154 people aboard. The Legacy jet, owned by Ronkonkoma, N.Y.-based ExcelAire, landed safely.Messrs. Lepore, 42, and Paladino, 34, were detained in Brazil for two months after the crash before they were allowed to leave, promising they would return for any court action.Brazilian authorities have already formally accused the pilots for their role in the crash, saying their “lack of caution” played a role.Joel R. Weiss, an American lawyer representing the pilots, said the men were innocent.“The accident of Sept. 29 was a terrible tragedy and the today the prosecutor’s charges against the pilots compounds that tragedy. It is an injustice to charge the pilots who are innocent of any crime,” Weiss said in a telephone interview from New York.Brazilian authorities have conceded in recent weeks that the air traffic controllers on duty at the time of the crash share blame for the crash. But they maintain the pilots should have noticed that Legacy’s transponder was not working for 55 minutes before the crash occurred.The transponder sends out a signal locating the plane for other aircraft and controllers.Mr. Weiss contended the blame rests squarely with the air traffic controllers, because ongoing technical investigations have not proven there was any indication in the cockpit to let the pilots know the transponder was turned off.Air traffic controllers should have known that the planes were on a collision path and had a clear indication on their screens that the transponder was not working, he said.“The prosecutor has prematurely reached a conclusion before the true experts, the civil aeronautics investigators have fully investigated this matter,” Mr. Weiss said.Military prosecutors are considering charges against the air traffic controllers who, as air force personnel, can only be charged in military courts.Earlier this week, the president of Brazil’s air traffic controllers union told a congressional commission investigating problems with the countries aviation system that Brazilian controllers were poorly trained in English – the universal language for controllers and pilots – and that blind spots existed in Brazil’s radar coverage.

Brazilian Prosecutor to Seek Indictments

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