(Adds details, comments) By Todd Benson SAO PAULO, Brazil, Dec 8 (Reuters) - Brazilian police charged two U.S. pilots on Friday with endangering air safety in the crash of a Brazilian airliner over the Amazon rain forest that killed all 154 people on board. Joseph Lepore, 42, and Jan Paladino, 34, both of New York state, were at the controls of a small executive jet that clipped wings with the Boeing 737 operated by Brazilian airline Gol Linhas Aereas Inteligentes <GOLL4.SA> as they flew between Brasilia and Manaus on Sept. 29. The Legacy business jet, owned by ExcelAire, a charter company based in Ronkonkoma, New York, landed safely at a remote military airstrip. But the Boeing plunged into the jungle, killing everyone aboard in Brazil's worst-ever air disaster. Air traffic in Brazil has been badly disrupted since the accident. Controllers, angry at being blamed for the crash and also to protest poor pay and long hours, have staged work slowdowns, causing scores of delays and cancellations all around the country. The pilots were charged on Friday when they appeared at federal police headquarters in Sao Paulo for questioning, a police spokesman said. The charges carry a maximum sentence of four years imprisonment, he added. The pilots' lawyers called the charges premature and suggested that their clients were being made scapegoats before the investigation was concluded. "This act is absolutely prejudiced and discriminatory," said Jose Carlos Dias, one of Brazil's best-known defense attorneys and a former justice minister. "They're rushing to find someone to blame." Despite the charges, Lepore and Paladino were allowed to fly back to the United States on Friday after being holed up in a beachfront hotel in Rio de Janeiro for more than two months. They agreed to return to Brazil at any time during the investigation if authorities request it, Dias said. ExcelAire criticized the Brazilian police, saying in a statement: "The insistence of the police officials to criminalize this accident investigation runs counter to the safety of the international flying public, and has been the target of worldwide criticism." The decision to charge the pilots, who have denied any wrongdoing in the crash, comes as public opinion appeared to be shifting in their favor. Shortly after the accident, Brazilian officials suggested that the pilots may have veered from their assigned altitude. But a preliminary report by the Brazilian Air Force, which is coordinating the investigation, said both aircraft had been cleared to fly at 37,000 feet (11,000 metres). The inquiry, though still inconclusive, also suggested that a gap in the coverage of air traffic control systems -- and a possible misunderstanding among air traffic controllers -- may have contributed to the accident. The pilots' plight caused a wave of protest from U.S. pilots' associations, who urged Brazilian authorities to conduct the investigation under widely accepted international guidelines for civil aviation and not as a criminal probe. (Additional reporting by Eduardo Simoes)
