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 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.
