Brazil controllers confirm jets clipped before crash
06 Oct 2006 00:21:01 GMT Source: Reuters
By Andrei Khalip and Pedro Fonseca RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil, Oct 5 (Reuters) - An executive jet piloted by two U.S. citizens was at the wrong altitude when it crossed paths with a passenger plane that crashed in the Amazon rainforest last week, killing 154 people, the chief Brazilian air traffic controller said on Thursday. Brig. Lt. Paulo Roberto Vilarinho said his Airspace Control Department, which is investigating Brazil's worst airplane disaster, could not yet blame anyone for the crash. He did not rule out an equipment malfunction, but said it was unlikely to be on the air traffic control side. "There is no way to deny that (contact between the planes). The Legacy should not have been flying at 37,000 feet (11,280 metres), now why it was flying there we will discover via an investigation," he told reporters. "But we still don't know what happened." The ExcelAire Embraer Legacy business jet, which lost a winglet in the accident and landed safely, was piloted by two U.S. citizens who are being questioned in Brazil. Police have confiscated their passports for the duration of the probe. Any pilot or controller found guilty in the crash could be jailed for up to five years, state security officials said. Salvage crews were still recovering human remains at the crash site in a dense, remote area in the rainforest. The low-cost Brazilian carrier Gol Linhas Aereas Inteligentes, whose plane plunged to the ground, also reduced the death toll by one person from 155 as one name had been registered twice. Vilarinho denied that there were gaps in the air traffic control service's radar coverage and said inspection flights after the crash showed that all the equipment along the route is working properly, although more checks were needed. He denied the contention by U.S. journalist Joe Sharkey, who was on board the Legacy, that air traffic control in the Amazon was inadequate. "There are no black holes or blind zones ... our system is comparable to those in the most developed countries, it's no worse," Vilarinho said. The business jet was flying north toward Manaus, the capital of Amazonas state, when it crashed. The Gol <GOLL4.SA><GOL.N> plane was heading south from Manaus. The business jet was new and had been purchased by ExcelAire Service, a charter company based in Ronkonkoma, New York, from Brazilian manufacturer Embraer <ERJ.N><EMBR3.SA>. Vilarinho said Legacy's transponder was apparently not working, which rendered anti-collision systems installed on both planes useless and prevented radars from reading Legacy's altitude. He did not rule out a technical glitch. Some Brazilian officials had suggested the pilots may have turned off the transponder. He also said air traffic controllers had tried to contact Legacy seven times but failed.
