Brazil Again Blames Americans in Amazon Crash

Brazil's defense minister on Wednesday once again appeared to lay the blame for Brazil's worst air disaster on the two American pilots of an executive jet who survived the midair collision.

On Sept. 29, a Boeing 737 and a smaller Legacy jet clipped each other over the Amazon rain forest. The Legacy, belonging to the U.S. company ExcelAire, was able to land without anyone aboard harmed but the Boeing crashed into the jungle killing all aboard.

Defense Minister Waldir Pires defended Brazil's air traffic control system as one of the most secure in the world in testimony before Congress on Wednesday and suggested the collision that left 154 people dead was the American pilots' fault.

"Why do they blame us that the transponder wasn't turned on?" Pires asked, referring to the anti-collision system on the Legacy that was not working at the time of the collision.

The American pilots of the Legacy, Joseph Lepore and Jan Paladino, deny having turned off the transponder as well as any wrongdoing in connection with the crash.

Theo Dias, an attorney for ExcelAire in Brazil, said Pires' remarks were inappropriate.

"It is highly inappropriate for the person that heads the ministry responsible for an ongoing and presumably neutral accident investigation to be making comments concerning technical matters of which he does not have knowledge and that have not been established by the experts," Dias said in an e-mail from ExcelAire.

The air disaster touched off a series of slowdowns by air traffic controllers protesting precarious work conditions and causing months of air travel delays across Brazil.

News stories provided by third parties are not edited by "Site Publication" staff. For suggestions and comments, please click the Contact link at the bottom of this page.