The Associated Press
Pilots Involved in Brazil Air Disaster Deny Turning off Communications Device
The American pilots of an executive jet involved in a deadly high-altitude collision with a Boeing 737 have denied they turned off the transponder that signaled their location, authorities said Thursday.
Pilots Joseph Lepore, of Bay Shore, N.Y., and Jan Paladino, of Westhampton Beach, N.Y., repeatedly told investigators they never turned off the device that transmits a plane's location and believed that it was working just before the collision, said Denise Niederauer, a spokeswoman for the Mato Grosso do Sul State Public Safety Department.
Brazilian authorities suggested a day earlier that the pilots may have turned off the device.
Authorities did not say why they believed that may have happened, but said a nonfunctioning transponder was a possible cause of the collision with Gol Airlines Flight 1907, which plunged into the Amazon jungle Friday, killing all 154 aboard in Brazil's worst air disaster. Gol initially had said there were 155 aboard, but on Thursday changed it to 154, blaming a mistake on the passenger list. The airline said a name had appeared twice on the list.
"They didn't turn anything off," Jose Carlos Dias, the pilots' lawyer, told Globo TV. "It's nonsense to say something like this ... They had no reason to do that."
The Brazilian-made Embraer Legacy 600 executive jet was damaged, but landed safely at an air force base.
The air force said both jets were equipped with a modern traffic collision avoidance system that monitors other planes and sets off an alarm if they get too close, but the system only works if the transponders are working properly.
If the American pilots are found to be responsible for turning off the transponder, which is illegal under Brazilian law, prosecutors said they could be charged with involuntary manslaughter. Authorities said, however, that there was not enough evidence to accuse anybody.
"We don't have elements to talk about that," Federal Police Investigator Renato Sayao told the official government news service Agencia Brasil.
The pilots' passports were seized Wednesday, but they were not arrested.
Authorities also were investigating why the small plane apparently was not flying at its authorized altitude of 36,000 feet. The collision took place at 37,000, where the Boeing 737-800 was authorized to be, Defense Minister Waldir Pires said.
"Why was this jet taken to that altitude? Was it a voluntary act by the pilot? Was it because of wrong information he received?" Sayao said. "That's the key question: What made the plane fly at 37,000 feet when it was supposed to be at 36,000 feet."
U.S. journalist Joe Sharkey, who was on the Legacy, wrote in The New York Times that shortly before the crash he saw an altitude display reading 37,000 feet.
The reporter also criticized air traffic control in Brazil, prompting an irate response from local authorities.
"It was an affirmation absolutely unfair and insane," Jose Carlos Pereira, the president of Brazil's airport authority, told GloboNews.
Pires called it "irresponsible to say something like that."
Brazil's air force said it investigated air traffic controllers' procedures on the day of the crash and found no irregularities.
The Legacy was making its inaugural flight from the southern Brazilian city of Sao Jose dos Campos to the United States, where it had been purchased by ExcelAire Service Inc., based in Ronkonkoma, N.Y.
ExcelAire issued a statement Thursday night saying it "believes the results of the investigation will show the rumors and speculation about its pilots are false."
The New York newspaper Newsday quoted ExcelAire chief executive Bob Sherry earlier in the day as saying he was seeking the return home of Lepore and Paladino.
He declined to comment on the crash, but said, "Our pilots have been treated well."
Nearly 40 bodies had been recovered from the crash site by Thursday, but federal authorities were having difficulties identifying the bodies and said that DNA testing may be needed to complete a process that could take weeks.
Some 250 troops were helping in the operation.