AP: Tower Error Blamed in Brazil Plane Crash

[Eugene]

Tower Error Blamed in Brazil Plane Crash

The Associated Press
Thursday, November 2, 2006; 9:58 AM

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil -- The flight recorder transcript from the executive jet
involved in Brazil's worst air disaster shows that the jet's American pilots were
told by Brazilian air traffic control to fly at the same altitude as a Boeing 737
before the planes collided over the Amazon rainforest, the Folha de S. Paulo
newspaper reported Thursday.

According to Folha, the flight recorder shows American pilot Joseph Lepore
receiving instructions from the tower in Sao Jose dos Campos to fly northwest
at 37,000 feet "until Eduardo Gomes," the airport in Manaus. That altitude
contradicted the pilots' filed flight plan and as an odd-numbered altitude should
be reserved for southbound flights.

Folha did not reveal how it had obtained the transcript, which the air force has
not yet released to federal police investigating the Sept. 29 crash. All 154 people
on board the Gol airline's 737 were killed. The badly damaged executive jet managed
to land safely, and the American pilots have been ordered to stay in Brazil during
the investigation.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/02/AR2006110200604.html

[bmbmd]

1. So was the pilot

allowed to leave the country? last I heard, he and the co-pilot were being held.

[Eugene]

2. The investigation is still open. The pilots are still accused.

The transcript has not been officially released yet,
but it does back up what the pilots' attorney said.

Pilots involved in Brazilian crash say altitude was OK'd - Carlsbad Current-Argus

[xultar]

3. But was the transponder thing for collisions turned off? Cuz the big

jet would have been warned if the little jet were too close.

[Kagemusha]

4. Sounds like they're still looking into that.

I remain very curious as to the outcome.

[jljamison]

5. and consistent with ALL aviation accident related reporting

this one also has a glaring error. Odd number altitudes are not assigned to southbound flights, but to EAST bound flights.