One of the latest, and less-speculative press reports from Newsday, via AP ..
At this point, Brazilian ATC is not looking too good .. attempts to contact the Legacy 7 times .. without result .. failure to note a non-operational transponder .. and failure to warn the GOL pilots of an aircraft heading on a possible collision course with them, with a non-operational transponder .. look very much like poor quality ATC to me ..
Top that, with a collision point, where ATC control transferred to a different region .. and the circumstances that led to the collision seem to be coming together rapidly ..
The only other major area of investigation that is critical, is whether the Legacy pilots followed correct procedures, or whether they realised that crucial communications were being missed. It certainly appears that that 7 minutes loss-of-communications allowance, is going to be a crucial factor in the collision causes.
Communication failures a possible factor in crash
BY BILL BLEYER
Newsday Staff Writers
October 6, 2006, 9:01 PM EDT
The preliminary investigation into the cause of a deadly midair collision over the Amazon jungle eight days ago could be completed next week, Brazilian authorities said Friday.
Federal police investigator Renato Sayao said Friday he was heading to Brasilia, the capital, to interview air traffic controllers to wrap up the initial phase of the probe.
The announcement came as Brazilian media reported new details of communications and electronics problems that seem to have played a factor in the crash that killed 154.
On Thursday, attorney Jose Carlos Dias -- a former Brazilian national justice minister hired to represent the ExcelAire of Ronkonkoma and its two Long Island pilots who were flying the executive jet that who survived the collision -- broke the silence maintained by the company and its pilots about specifics of the collision.
Dias responded to Brazilian officials who contended that Joseph Lepore, 42, of Bay Shore, and Jan Paladino, 34, of Westhampton Beach, had turned off the transponder that gave the position of their Embraer Legacy 600 jet, possibly to try stunt maneuvers with the plane on its maiden flight. Dias told Globo TV, "They had no reason to do that." He called the allegation "nonsense."
Brazilian officials previously have said the pilots had told investigators that they had not disabled the system and it was working before impact.
Dias elaborated in a story in the O Globo newspaper, saying the pilots had already flown the same kind of airplane in the United States. "It is inconceivable that they would behave so mischievously in the air. ... This doesn't match their character, because they are very serious and competent."
A judge earlier this week ordered the pilots to turn over their passports while authorities investigate whether they flew at the wrong altitude, causing the collision with Gol Airlines Flight 1907 at 37,000 feet. Officials said the Legacy plane should have been at 36,000. Everyone on Flight 1907 died and all seven people on the Legacy were uninjured.
Dias addressed that issue as well. "The altitude question is controversial," he said. "They [the pilots] said that they were on the correct flight-plan altitude."
The lawyer was quoted by the O Estado de Sao Paulo newspaper as saying, "They were following the flight plan strictly. When approaching Brasilia, they contacted the control tower, to make sure that they should lower their altitude, but they couldn't communicate. But I don't want to attribute responsibility to anybody." He didn't elaborate on whether they changed altitude anyway.
O Globo reported that Lt. Brigadier General Paulo Roberto Cardoso Vilarinho, director of the air traffic control system, said that investigators had stated that controllers in Brasilia tried to contact the Legacy seven times in more than one hour and only made contact after the impact. He added that shortly after the executive jet passed Brasilia, controllers noticed the transponder on the jet was not operating, and it began to operate again after the collision.
Vilarinho stated that the Brazilian airliner was never notified that the smaller plane was in the area with a transponder that was not operating but did not explain why. "I don't want to speculate because I don't have the data," he said.
Vilarinho also said tests so far had ruled out any malfunction of Brazil's air traffic control system. He said that after flight controllers lost transponder and radio contact with the Legacy, they were still able to track the plane's course but not its altitude by radar.
Burson-Marsteller, an international public relations firm hired by ExcelAire, said the pilots were staying at an undisclosed location in Rio de Janeiro and would not be publicly commenting on the case.