This is the reading of testimony of the controller who issued the wrong clearance at Senate. Maybe it helps to understand what happened:
SENATOR DEMOSTENES TORRES: “Sergeant Felipe S.R. were not heard on this CPI (Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry). He affirmed – he is one of the indicted – as was published by press, that would not talk about the accident and his professional conduct. His intention of stay in silence was confirmed when he was requested to testify at CPI of the Chamber of Deputies (in Brazil there is two chambers – Deputies and Senate). If he said nothing to Chamber of Deputies, it became clear in his testimony to police officer Sayao, there is no doubt that his conduct was relevant to the accident. He said to police officer... So, this testimony is important for what? Because he didn’t came here to testify and even in the Chamber he stayed quite, that is why we didn’t request him to testify, but for the police officer he said: “That, when he transmitted the flight plan – who was this sir, sir Felipe S.R.? Or who is he? On that moment he was the person in Brasilia, who was in charge of approving the plan and transmit the plan to Sao Jose dos Campos – and, by the occasion of transmitting the plan of N600XL aircraft, of planning room in position “S1 assistant”, the declarant was occupying this position; That the air traffic in that moment could be considered of low intensity; That he received only the “electronic strip” that indicated the flight plan only of the sector of the declarant-S1; That he didn’t have, in that occasion, the declarant, the information that the aircraft intended, in their plan, modify its fly level at Brasilia, neither in Teres position, because those information is not displayed in the “electronic strip”; That the subsequent information regarding the flight plan in the sectors after of the declarant, could be accessed by a special function key, but since it was an ordinary flight plan and an ordinary clearance and since the responsibility of the declarant was only Sector 1, the declarant didn’t understand necessary to access them – he didn’t access all information; That in his training, the declarant learned that flight plans clearances, that have several levels, were issued by the first sector assistant specifying only the flight levels of his sector, due to the lack of information in the “strip”. That, for that reasons, the declarant, indeed, when received the call of São José dos Campos tower – that requested clearance for aircraft N600XL flight plan, issued this clearance mentioning the level 370 and direction necessary to the aircraft intercept the intended airway; That when asked if this clearance was complete or partial, answered that his clearance was of the essential information, and didn’t mention complementary information and that was a partial clearance; That when was read the transcription of phone communication between Brasilia and Sao Jose dos Campos, by which this clearance was issued and asked again about the partial aspect of this clearance, the declarant assured that his clearance foresaw level and direction to be flown in the airway until Brasilia, and ends in Brasilia, and this way, couldn’t be understood as a complete clearance; That the extract that says “São José – Eduardo Gomes” was interpreted by the declarant, as a way to identify what flight and aircraft he was referring to and not the complete extension of the clearance; That he knowledge and understand that he didn’t infringe what is put in ICA-100/12, item 8.4.9 and item 8.4.10.1 (clearance)”.
(THIS IS MY TRANSLATION, AND I’M NOT A GOOD TRANSLATOR)
He and four other controllers were indicted. What surprises me is that how many thousands of clearances were issued this way? IFATCA believes that this is not a human fault, and it is not a training issue. They believe it’s a equipment failure.