Reuters AlertNet Lite - Brazil rules out equipment flaws in air crash

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Brazil rules out equipment flaws in air crash

09 Mar 2007 18:52:26 GMT
Source: Reuters

BRASILIA, March 9 (Reuters) - Equipment made by Honeywell International Inc. <HON.N>, L-3 Communications Holdings Inc. <LLL.N> and Thales SA <TCFP.PA> did not malfunction and cause last September's fatal air accident involving two jets in Brazil, investigators said in a preliminary report.

The Brazilian Air Force team investigating the accident said there was no blackout or malfunction of the anti-collision warning system on a Legacy business jet assembled by Brazil's Embraer SA <EMBR3.SA> and operated by U.S. charter company ExcelAire.

On Sept. 29, the Legacy and a larger passenger jet clipped each other in mid-air over Brazil. The Legacy made an emergency landing, but the passenger jet spun out of control and plunged into the Amazon jungle, killing all 154 people on board.

Relatives of the victims filed for damages in U.S. courts in November, naming ExcelAire and Honeywell in the suit.

In February, Honeywell said the Legacy's anti-collision system was made by ACSS, a company jointly owned by Thales and L-3.

But Honeywell did make the jet's transponder, a piece of equipment that broadcasts information about a jet's location and allows the anti-collision system to work.

A spokesman for Brazil's air force said investigators are still looking into whether the anti-collision equipment was installed properly and whether the two transponders on the Legacy were turned off during flight, deliberately or by accident. The transponders were not operating just before the accident, but started working again just after.

Honeywell has issued warnings in the past about transponder models similar to the Legacy's because of design flaws that caused pilots to unwittingly switch the models to standby, a San Francisco law firm representing some of the plaintiffs has said.

"There were never any (airworthiness directive warnings) issued on the family of transponders on the Legacy," said Bill Reavis, a spokesman for Honeywell's aerospace division.

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Last updated:Fri Mar 9 18:54:11 2007