Dec. 10--The two ExcelAir pilots detained in Brazil for 70 days after surviving a midair collision that killed 154 people on another plane are finally back with family and friends.
"It feels good to be home," said Joseph Lepore about 5 p.m. yesterday, as he strode toward the Bay Shore ranch house where he lives with his wife, two children and parents.
Jan Paladino said, "It feels great," as he hauled a travel bag into his Westhampton Beach house. "I'm glad to be home."
"We're very excited," Paladino's wife, Melissa, said. "He's had a long ordeal. He's looking forward to getting some rest."
Lepore, 42, and Paladino, 34, employees of the Ronkonkoma-based ExcelAir, had arrived at MacArthur Airport aboard a blue and white Embraer Legacy 600 shortly before noon.
They were flying the same model corporate jet Sept. 29 when their plane collided with a Boeing 737 over the Amazon jungle. All 154 people on the Boeing were killed in Brazil's worst-ever aviation disaster.
All seven people aboard the Legacy survived after it made an emergency landing at a jungle military base.
Brazilian authorities confiscated Lepore's and Paladino's passports a few days after the crash, barring their departure from the country. The two men then remained mostly secluded in a Copacabana Beach hotel in Rio de Janeiro as accusations of their guilt by Brazilian officials swirled around them.
Last week, a Brazilian federal tribunal ruled that the pilots' detention violated Brazil's equal justice provisions, and ordered their passports returned.
On Friday, Brazil's federal police formally accused them of flying in a manner that endangered aircraft.
Yesterday, their lawyer, Robert Torricella, said Friday's police proceeding fell short of a full criminal indictment. Torricella said he did not expect Brazilian authorities will seek their return to face any judicial proceeding.
"They have not indicated that they would request their return," Torricella said.
At their noon landing yesterday, they were greeted by roughly 200 cheering friends, colleagues and family members. Lepore's 3-year-old daughter, Nicole, toddled onto the tarmac clutching a covey of red, white and blue balloons before Lepore swept her up in his arms.
"This is a day that is long overdue," said Bill Fallar, an ExcelAir employee who was among the roughly 200 people who welcomed the pilots shortly before noon. "This was very hard on all of us."
Rep. Peter King (R-Seaford), who lobbied the U.S. State Department to intervene, greeted them at the airport. "If you have to be involved in such a story, this is a great ending to it," King said.
One passenger on the Legacy during the collision, who was at the gathering, was journalist Joe Sharkey, who has described watching metal on the plane's wings peel away.
Lepore's father, Antonio, 69, who with his wife, Anna, lives in his son's Bay Shore home, said the collision was a tragic accident. "I feel bad for those people who passed away; it's not their fault," he said. "It could be my son with them."
A neighbor described Joseph Lepore as an amiable man who talked of computers and telescopes. "I can't wait to see him," said Chris Barber, 23. "He's a great guy. We always said hi." Barber and other well-wishers at the airport said Brazilian authorities had been unfair to the pilots, who have declined to comment.
- Staff writers Mitchell Freedman and Sophia Chang contributed to this story.
Copyright 2005 LexisNexis, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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