D3G,
Don't think that's the case; at least one of the Legacy crew had been there before. What's filtering in from flight crew with experience in that area is a) there are occasional comms blackouts and b) atc quality seems to vary.
What's happening now is a flutter of bits of news seeping out, some corporative back-covering, conflicting objectives between the judiciary (a prosecutor intent on establishing blame and, perhaps, a name for himself) and aeronautical authorities who, in this case, are primarily Brazilian airforce and who combine accident investigation responsibility with that of overseeing ATC.
Not easy to discern fact from fabrication.
In the meantime, 737 CVR bits haven't been found and hopes for doing so appear to be fading.