Remarks to the comments of Broadreach
Comments to the posts of Broadreach:
You say "The airforce’s accident investigation committee concluded that the Legacy pilots mistakenly switched off the aircraft’s transponder when they mistook it for the radio. Both are located in the same box on the control panel."
I know that this is written in the article of Folha de São Paulo that you quote.
But I have strong doubts that this is the correct version, as the CVR of the Legacy doesn't even have a shadow of such a manipulation in the timeframe minus 5 and plus 5 minutes before/after the transponder went on stand-by at 19.02 UTC, about 30 miles North of BRS.
No remarks about radio manipulations (either Set 1 or Set 2) are present on the CVR. In fact the pilots talk continously about the landing in Manaus and the weather and the runway conditions up there at Eduardo Gomes.
I have strong doubts that this is the correct explanation.
You say further on: "A possible reason for releasing the above, and which the article itself alludes to, is that it may help to clarify one of the issues in the post-crash dispute between controllers and the airforce, namely the existence of a communications “black hole” in Amazon coverage".
You are correct to point this out as the current chief of ACC Brasilia, Commander Raulino, has now officially confirmed that there were black radar holes and blind spots at ACC Brasilia in September 2006, when the crash occured.
In the mean time these holes are "fixed" as a radar source from Manaus was brought in and is now fully available.
Once again it had to occur an accident before well identified safety issues got finally fixed.
All the best
Chris