premature to lay blame over plane crash

dpa German Press Agency
Published: Wednesday October 4, 2006

Cuiaba, Brazil- The Brazilian Air Force (FAB) on Wednesday warned that it was "premature" to assign responsibility for the worst plane crash in the country's history, after state police earlier in the day said they were investigating two US pilots. FAB said in a statement that investigations into Saturday's mid- air collision were ongoing, and that it was too early "to establish any judgement or make comments" about the case.

A large Boeing 737-800 collided with a twin-engine private plane Friday over the thick Amazon jungle in northern Brazil. The Boeing crashed, killing all 155 people on board, but the Brazilian-built Embraer Legacy managed to land safely at a nearby military airfield.

Earlier on Wednesday, the Brazilian Federal Police said they were investigating the culpability of the pilot and copilot of the Legacy for the accident.

Geraldo Pereira, federal police superintendent in the state of Mato Grosso, said the pilot of the Legacy, Joseph Lepore, could be charged with unintentional homicide in Brazil.

"The pilot was aware that he could put human lives at risk, and he did not take the necessary precautions," Pereira said in comments quoted by Brazilian media.

The Attorney General's office said it is considering issuing a warrant to hold Lepore and copilot Jan Paul Paladino, both US nationals, for the length of the investigation.

A key issue in the investigation is the possibility that the Legacy was flying at a lower or higher altitude than it should have. But it remains to be determined whether this was due to a mistake by Lepore - who may have ignored orders to fly at a lower altitude - or due to an air traffic control tower failure.

Preliminary investigations of the collision suggested the crash happened because both planes were travelling towards each other at an altitude of 37,000 feet (11,300 metres).

Brazil's Defence Minister Waldir Pires on Wednesday said that neither plane had asked for permission to change its route.

Under standard rules governing the Brasilia-to-southern-Amazonia airspace, planes flying north to south such as the Boeing are to fly at an odd altitude, while planes going in the opposite direction, in this case the Legacy, are to keep to an even altitude, FAB commander brigadier Luiz Carlos da Silva Bueno explained Tuesday.

Lepore has confirmed in a statement to Brazilian aeronautical authorities that the small plane was flying at 37,000 feet, according to civilian police in Mato Grosso, where the crash occurred.

Civil aviation authority and FAB sources quoted in the media said the Legacy did not react to numerous contact attempts by the control tower.

But a New York Times business writer, who was on board the Legacy, denied that the US pilots had been warned to change their altitude by the control tower, saying he heard nothing when he went to the cockpit about five minutes before the collision.

"They didn't have air traffic control ... There was no air traffic control conversation that I'm aware of," Joe Sharkey told US broadcast network CNN on Wednesday.

Further, it is unclear why the anti-collision systems that both machines had in place did not work. Brazilian authorities suspect that the Legacy pilots not only flew at an unauthorized altitude but had also turned off anti-collision and other communications systems, according to the media reports.

On Tuesday Brazilian Federal Police confiscated the passports of Lepore and Paladino in order to make sure that they remain in the South American country while the authorities carry out the investigation.

The confiscation had been requested by the Attorney General's office, which said Lepore and Paladino "essential witnesses" of the tragedy.

The pilot and his copilot have been interrogated several times in the past few days.

Rescue efforts are ongoing in the area of dense Amazon rainforest in the state of Mato Grosso where the clash happened, and only around 110 bodies have been found so far.

On Monday, the two black boxes of the Boeing were found. They are considered vital to the crash investigation, although they are said to have suffered great damage. They are to be sent to the United States to be studied by Boeing technical teams.

The black box of the Legacy is also being examined in the town of Sao Jose dos Campos, in the state of Sao Paulo, while a mechanism that records dialogue between the pilot and the control tower has not yet been found.

The US National Transportation Safety Board has sent three investigators to assist in the probe, and representatives of the US Federal Aviation Administration and Boeing Aircraft Company were also heading to the accident scene, a NTSB official said on Tuesday.

A full probe into the mishap is expected to take at least three months, given the difficulty of reaching the remote jungle crash site.

© 2006 dpa German Press Agency