U.S. Pilot Charged in Brazil Plane Crash Plans to Fly Again

A pilot charged in Brazil's deadliest air disaster said Sunday he has no plans to stay out of the sky.

"Oh, yeah, I'll fly again," Jan Paladino said as he walked out of his Westhampton Beach, N.Y., home, a day after returning from Brazil, where he and co-pilot Joseph Lepore had been detained since the fatal September crash.

Paladino, 34, wished reporters a merry Christmas but had nothing more to say about the Sept. 29 midair collision that resulted in the deaths of 154 people.

The ExcelAire corporate jet that he and Lepore were piloting struck a Boeing 737 passenger plane operated by Gol Airlines, sending that aircraft plunging into the Amazon jungle.

He and Lepore successfully landed their seven-person aircraft with no injuries to passengers or crew.

Brazilian officials seized the pilots' passports and held them at a Rio de Janeiro hotel, charging they had been unauthorized to change their flight plan and fly at an altitude of 37,000 feet - the same as the Brazilian plane.

But transcripts indicate that air traffic controllers in Sao Jose dos Campos okayed the change in altitude.

"He wants his side of the story to come out, but in his own time," said Paladino's wife, Melissa.

"He hasn't slept for days and is still getting acclimated," she added.

She said he was relentlessly hounded by the Brazilian media - making the current media glare appear tame.

Still, Paladino and Lepore both had private security guards stationed at their homes Sunday to keep reporters at bay.

Lepore, 42, remained inside his cozy two-story home in Bayshore, N.Y., Sunday after Saturday's reunion with his wife, Ellen, their 8-year-old son Michael and 3-year-old daughter Nicole.

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