Brazil Jet Crash Hearing
Poor worker training and radar coverage contributed to the country's deadliest plane crash
BRASILIA, Brazil - The president of the Brazilian flight controllers union said yesterday that poor worker training and radar coverage contributed to the country's deadliest plane crash, which involved two pilots from Long Island and killed 154 people.
Testifying before a congressional commission investigating Brazil's troubled air traffic control system, Jorge Botelho said aviation authorities share responsibility for the midair collision for not adequately schooling controllers in English. He said the country's radar coverage also has blind spots.
"In my view, the controllers could have erred," Botelho said, "but I can't accept punishing the controllers without punishing the authorities that didn't provide the adequate means or didn't overcome the deficiencies that could have brought the controllers to the accident."
On Sept. 29, an Embraer Legacy 600 executive jet collided with a Gol airlines Boeing 737 over the Amazon rain forest. The Gol plane crashed, killing everyone aboard, while the Legacy, owned by Ronkonkoma-based ExcelAire, landed safely.
The disaster touched off months of nationwide protests by air controllers, who complained of precarious work conditions.
Officials also are considering whether to bring charges against the two pilots of the Legacy, saying they failed to notice the jet's transponder was not signaling the plane's location at the time of the crash. The officials have said that they wanted the pilots to testify either personally in Brazil or in a deposition.
The pilots, Joseph Lepore, of Bay Shore, and Jan Paladino, of Westhampton Beach, have repeatedly denied wrongdoing and say controllers approved their flight course.
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