U.S. Pilots Deny Turning Off Transponder in Brazil Airplane Crash
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SAO PAULO, Brazil — The two American pilots of an executive jet involved in a deadly high-altitude collision with a Boeing 737 have denied that they turned off the transponder that signaled their location, authorities said yesterday.
Pilots Joseph Lepore and Jan Paladino, both from Long Island, repeatedly told investigators that they never turned off the device that transmits a plane’s location and that they believed that it was working just before the collision, a spokeswoman for the Mato Grosso do Sul State Public Safety Department, Denise Niederauer, said.
Brazilian authorities suggested a day earlier that the pilots — Mr. Lepore, 42, of Bay Shore, and Mr. Paladino, 34, of Westhampton Beach — may have turned off the device.
Authorities did not say why they believed that may have happened but said a nonfunctioning transponder was a possible cause of the collision with Gol Airlines Flight 1907,which plunged into the Amazon jungle on Friday, killing all 155 people aboard in Brazil’s worst air disaster.
The Brazilian-made Embraer Legacy 600 executive jet was damaged but landed safely at an air force base.
Prosecutors said Wednesday that they could charge the American pilots with involuntary manslaughter if they are found responsible for turning off the transponder, which is illegal under Brazilian law.
The pilots’ passports were seized on Wednesday, but they were not arrested.
Authorities also were investigating why the small plane apparently was not flying at its authorized altitude of 36,000 feet. The collision took place at 37,000, where the Boeing 737–800 was authorized to be, Brazil’s Defense Minister Waldir Pires said.
American journalist Joe Sharkey, who was on the Legacy, wrote in the New York Times that, shortly before the crash, he saw an altitude display reading 37,000 feet. Brazil’s air force said it investigated air traffic controllers’ procedures on the day of the crash and found no irregularities.
The Legacy was making its inaugural flight to America from the southern Brazilian city of Sao Jose dos Campos, where it had been purchased by ExcelAire Service Inc., based in Ronkonkoma on Long Island.
Nearly 40 bodies had been recovered from the crash site by yesterday morning, but federal authorities were having difficulties identifying the bodies and said DNA testing may be needed to complete a process that could take weeks.
