Gol 737 crash report blames ExcelAire pilots, Brazilian ATC
Tuesday December 9, 2008
The Brazilian Air Force is set to release a final report on the Sept. 29, 2006, midair collision between a Gol 737-800 and an ExcelAire Legacy 600 that led to the deaths of all 154 aboard the 737, and reportedly it will cite as primary causes the ExcelAire pilots' negligence in inadvertently turning off the aircraft's transponder and a series of mistakes by air traffic controllers.
The report is expected to be released officially tomorrow after victims' families have been given an opportunity to review it. Brazilian media reported the findings over the weekend.
According to Brazzil Magazine, the report will claim that the transponder was off and did not send any information to ATC for 58 min. and will hold the two ExcelAire pilots responsible for the mistake. It will state further that the pilots were not well-versed on Brazilian flight regulations.
But it also will blame ATC, claiming that controllers gave poor instructions and faulty altitude guidance to the pilots. It will state that a number of controllers failed to notice that the Legacy was not relaying information to ATC for nearly an hour and also passed wrong altitude readings on the aircraft to one another.
Joel Weiss, an attorney for the two American pilots, told Newsday that the pilots should not be blamed for "a string of utterly catastrophic errors of air traffic control," adding that ATC "put and kept these two planes on a collision course. Any report that the pilots are at fault for that is nonsense."
ExcelAire Executive VP David Rimmer told the Associated Press, "The transponder issue is a distraction from. . .an air traffic control system that put two airplanes on a collision course. . .We have no proof of how the transponder was turned off and no evidence to suggest it was inadvertently turned off by the pilots."
Brazilian police in late 2006 charged the two ExcelAire Legacy pilots, who were detained in Brazil for more than two months after the crash, with endangering aircraft safety. The pilots have not been summoned to Brazil for a criminal trial since leaving the country in December 2006 after agreeing to return if a trial were held.
by Aaron Karp
ATWOnline
Tuesday December 9, 2008
The Brazilian Air Force is set to release a final report on the Sept. 29, 2006, midair collision between a Gol 737-800 and an ExcelAire Legacy 600 that led to the deaths of all 154 aboard the 737, and reportedly it will cite as primary causes the ExcelAire pilots' negligence in inadvertently turning off the aircraft's transponder and a series of mistakes by air traffic controllers.
The report is expected to be released officially tomorrow after victims' families have been given an opportunity to review it. Brazilian media reported the findings over the weekend.
According to Brazzil Magazine, the report will claim that the transponder was off and did not send any information to ATC for 58 min. and will hold the two ExcelAire pilots responsible for the mistake. It will state further that the pilots were not well-versed on Brazilian flight regulations.
But it also will blame ATC, claiming that controllers gave poor instructions and faulty altitude guidance to the pilots. It will state that a number of controllers failed to notice that the Legacy was not relaying information to ATC for nearly an hour and also passed wrong altitude readings on the aircraft to one another.
Joel Weiss, an attorney for the two American pilots, told Newsday that the pilots should not be blamed for "a string of utterly catastrophic errors of air traffic control," adding that ATC "put and kept these two planes on a collision course. Any report that the pilots are at fault for that is nonsense."
ExcelAire Executive VP David Rimmer told the Associated Press, "The transponder issue is a distraction from. . .an air traffic control system that put two airplanes on a collision course. . .We have no proof of how the transponder was turned off and no evidence to suggest it was inadvertently turned off by the pilots."
Brazilian police in late 2006 charged the two ExcelAire Legacy pilots, who were detained in Brazil for more than two months after the crash, with endangering aircraft safety. The pilots have not been summoned to Brazil for a criminal trial since leaving the country in December 2006 after agreeing to return if a trial were held.
by Aaron Karp
ATWOnline
