http://g1.globo.com/Noticias/Brasil/0,,AA1386360-5598,00.html
13/12/2006 - 16:49 - updated 13/12/2006 - 21:13
"There is evidence that the pilots contributed to the accident", says Federal Police
Federal Police deliver report to court this Wednesday.
Report points to negligence during flight.
Leandro Colon, special envoy of G1 to Cuiabá
[Photo of Jan and Joe at welcome reception, Joe holding 3-year-old]
Photo legend: Pilots arrive in USA after being formally accused
The superintendent of the Federal Police in Mato Grosso, Daniel Lorenz Azevedo, said this Wednesday (13) that the Federal Police have evidence that the pilots of the Legacy were partially responsible for the accident with the plane making Gol flight 1907 on September 29 which killed 154 people. "There is evidence and indications that the pilots had conduct that contributed to the accident", he said. The partial report of the Federal Police was delivered to Federal Court in Sinop (Mato Grosso) this Wednesday.
According to the superintendent, the dialogues on the jet's black box endanger Joe Lepore and Jan Paladino. "When the dialogues are compared with the technical data from the air traffic control center you can reach the conclusion that induced us to accuse the pilots", he affirmed.
The pilots were formally accused last Friday, December 8, under article 261 of the Criminal Code, which covers risk to air traffic. The penalty is from two to five years of prison, and can be increased by a third because of the deaths in the tragedy. For the Federal Police, the pilots were negligent in not perceiving that the transponder (the equipment that sends data from the airplane to the control tower and to other aircraft) of the jet was turned off for at least 50 minutes before the collision. According to the report, it is not possible to affirm if the equipment was turned off voluntarily, but there is proof that it was turned back on only two minutes after the collision.
The accusation of the pilots is in the partial report that police chief Ramon Almeida, who is in charge of the investigation, delivered this Wednesday to the court. The report, besides accusing the pilots, summarizes the 17 depositions given up to now, raises suspicions against the flight controllers, but still does not call them responsible for the accident. For the Federal Police, the negligence of the pilots, the failures of communication with the tower, and, possibly, the errors by controllers contributed to the tragedy.
New accusations
Lorenz Azevedo confirmed, without giving names, that additional persons may be accused if the court concedes the 30-day extension requested by the Federal Police. "The chances are great of new accusations against persons with vehement indications against them", he said. G1 learned that these "persons" are controllers in the São José dos Campos and Brasília towers.
Two factors have prevented the police from accusing the controllers up to now. The first is the Federal Police's jurisdiction to take this measure. The police fear their control being questioned by the Military Courts, since the controllers are military. That doubt should be settled for the police chief by the court in Sinop in the next few days.
Another point is that the police would like to hear the controller of the Manus tower, also in relation to the two flights, and conclude their examination of the dialogues on the black boxes of the jet and the Boeing, and of the graphical representation of the flights. By comparing this information, the Federal Police agree, it should be possible to show where the flight controllers are to blame.
The Federal Police does not give names in the report, but the heaviest suspicions weigh against one controller from São José dos Campos and two from Brasília. The first supposedly told the Legacy to take off to 37.000 feet and stay at that altitude to Manaus, when, in reality, it should have descended to 36.000 feet after Brasília and, at a given spot, ascended to 38,000.
As to Brasília, one of the controllers is said to not have perceived that the Legacy stayed at 37.000 feet, the same altitude at which the Gol Boeing was travelling, in the region of the accident. This controller, the police investigation says, did not pass this information to his relief at the shift change. This last, for his part, could have advised the Legacy on detecting the altitude error.
It is at this point, however, that the technical examination enters, that the police expect to complete in the next thirty days to know what the communication error was between the towers and the Legacy. The Federal Police consider the dialogues fundamental to clear up what happened in the accident.
While the inquiry is not sealed, the Federal Police will attempt to prevent the leaking of the dialogues, because a document from the Air Force prohibits divulging this type of information.