I think they hang the Captain in Central and South America too. Someone has to pay..!
Story 1:
Garuda Indonesia pilot arrested over crash-lawyer
Tue Feb 5, 2008 6:52am GMT
(Adds pilots' protest, details of arrest)
JAKARTA, Feb 5 (Reuters) - The pilot of a Garuda Indonesia aircraft that crashed at Yogyakarta airport killing 21 people last year has been arrested by police on charges that include manslaughter, his lawyer said on Tuesday.
Captain Marwoto Komar, who was arrested on Monday after eight hours of interrogation, was also charged with other offences including violating aviation law and could face more than five years in jail, the pilot's lawyer Muhammad Assegaf said. The Boeing 737, with 140 people on board, bounced and skidded off the runway in the central Javanese town of Yogyakarta before bursting into flames in a rice field in March 2007.
Both pilots survived the crash, which happened less than three months after an Adam Air aircraft disappeared with 102 passengers and crew on board off Sulawesi island.
"We think there is no basis for his arrest," Assegaf said by telephone, "I believe his arrest has raised a lot of eyebrows among the global aviation community."
Last year a report by the National Transport Safety Commission said the pilot ignored 15 warnings as he descended too rapidly, but declined to attribute the crash to "human error" or "pilot error".
The committee's report said the aircraft "was flown at an excessive air speed and steep flight path angle during the approach and landing, resulting in an unstabilised approach".
Five Australians -- two policemen, a diplomat, a journalist and an aid official -- were among the casualties. They were part of a group that had been accompanying then Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer, who was not on board the plane, on a visit to Indonesia.
PILOTS PROTEST
About 30 pilots staged a protest at the parliament building in Jakarta, demanding police release Komar immediately and calling for a separate tribunal for aviation offences.
"The criminalisation of pilots will put pilots under pressure in carrying out their job," the chairman of the Indonesian Pilots Federation, Manotar Napitupulu, said in a statement read out before legislators.
A copy of the arrest warrant handed out by the pilots' federation said Komar was accused of negligence causing deaths and destruction of an airplane. He would be detained for 20 days.
Stephanus Gerardus, who heads Garuda's pilots' association, said the arrest was unlawful as it was based on some of the findings published by the National Transport Safety Committee.
Indonesian officials have previously said that under International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) rules the results of an investigation by a country's transport safety commission could not be used as evidence in court.
Police could not immediately be contacted to comment on the arrest.
Rapid growth in air travel in Indonesia, a country of more than 17,000 islands, has raised questions over whether safety has been compromised and whether the infrastructure and personnel can cope with the huge increase. (Reporting by Adhityani Arga, Pipit Prahoro and Telly Nathalia; Editing by Ed Davies and Alex Richardson)
Story 2:
Brazil Holds U.S. Pilots After Airliner Crash
By PETER MUELLO, AP
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (Sept. 4) - Two American executive jet pilots were ordered by a judge to stay in Brazil while authorities investigate whether they caused a midair collision with an airliner that crashed into the Amazon, killing all 155 people aboard.
A Brazilian newspaper reported that the pilots' Legacy jet, which was carrying seven Americans, disobeyed an order by the control tower to descend to a lower altitude just before coming into contact with Gol airlines Flight 1907.
A judge in Mato Grosso state ordered federal police to seize the passports of pilot Joseph Lepore and co-pilot Jan Palladino "as a result of the doubts surrounding the case and the emergence of indications that the accident was caused by the Legacy," Mato Grosso Justice Department press spokeswoman Maria Barbant said by telephone Tuesday.
She said the two were not arrested but "just prevented from leaving the country, at least until we know exactly what happened" in Brazil's deadliest air disaster.
The daily O Globo paper said the Legacy flew at 37,000 feet to the capital, Brasilia, but then ignored an order to descend to 36,000 feet to continue its flight to the Amazon city of Manaus. The Gol jetliner was flying at 37,000 feet from Manaus to Brasilia en route to Rio de Janeiro.
The damaged executive jet safely landed at a nearby air force base after the incident.
The pilots, who have been questioned by Mato Grosso investigators, were brought to Rio de Janeiro on Tuesday for routine physical tests. They were not injured in the incident.
The Legacy had been making its inaugural flight to the United States, where it had been purchased by an American company, said its manufacturer, Embraer.
Air force commander Gen. Luis Carlos Bueno also said the Gol flight, a brand-new Boeing 737-800, had a flight plan for 37,000 feet and the Legacy jet was authorized to fly at 36,000 feet, according to an interview Tuesday with Brazil's government news service Agencia Brasil.
He said neither plane was authorized to deviate from the plans. He said only an investigation of the planes' black boxes could clarify the cause of the accident.
Neither the air force nor the National Civil Aviation Agency would comment on the reports.
Christine Negroni, an investigator for the aviation law firm Kreindler & Kreindler of New York, said in an e-mail that under international guidelines the Legacy should not have been at an odd-numbered altitude because it was heading northwest.
"All westbound flights fly at even numbers with 1,000 feet separation. East bound flights fly at odd numbers, same 1,000 separation," she said. "Since the American pilots were flying northwest, they should not have been at 37,000 since that's odd."
Investigators began examining voice and data recorders recovered from the jetliner Tuesday, but the National Civil Aviation Agency said one of the voice recorders was missing data.
"This unit is essential for analysis," the agency said on its Web site. It said military units were searching for missing parts.
Investigators will also look at why the pilots weren't alerted by special on-board equipment designed to avoid collisions. The air force said both jets were equipped with a Traffic Collision Avoidance System, or TCAS, which monitors other planes and sets off an alarm if they get too close.
The Gol plane crashed deep in the Amazon jungle in Mato Grosso state, some 1,100 miles northwest of Rio de Janeiro, killing all 149 passengers and six crew members.
There appeared to be only one American on the flight - Douglas Hancock, 35, of Missouri. He was in Mato Grosso for business and was returning to Rio de Janeiro where he lived, his father, Paul Hancock, told the Southeast Missourian newspaper.
Bueno said about 100 bodies were found within a half-mile of the wreckage and were flown to the coroner's office in Brasilia for identification. He said rescue workers would have to open more clearings in the dense jungle to try to recover the rest.
The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board said it was sending a team of investigators, who would be joined by representatives from the Federal Aviation Administration and Boeing Co.
The U.S. agencies were involved because the Gol plane was manufactured in the United States and the smaller jet was registered there.
10/04/06 03:35 EDT
Copyright 2006 The Associated Press.
You have to be careful because an accidental mistake is now considered as criminal liability in many parts of the World...!!