Update on the 2006 ExcelAire Legacy - GOL mid-air collision

Last month I reported here that ExcelAire, the company that owned the Embraer Legacy 600 that was involved in the mid-air collision in Brazilian airspace last year, had blamed Brazilian air traffic control for the accident.

I linked to a blog item by journalist Joe Sharkey, who was a passenger aboard the Legacy at the time of the collision in September of 2006. Mr. Sharkey presented his account of the accident investigation in two parts in his blog, and included a link to the Portuguese language version of ExcelAire's report.

A few days ago, Joe Sharkey posted another update that includes a link to the 98-page English language version of the ExcelAire report about the accident. If you have been following the story of this accident and the subsequent investigation, I would suggest the ExcelAire document as required reading, along with a few more recent posts in Mr. Sharkey's blog.

Have a look at this post from May 4, in which Joe Sharkey writes about the Brazilian response to the NTSB letter that discusses the malfunctioning collision avoidance system on the Legacy at the time of the accident. Sharkey cites Brazilian press reports that quote Federal Police chief Renato Sayão, who said of the NTSB letter, "...this is information for the pilots' defense. This type of release is only in their interest." He was referring to the two American pilots of the Legacy, of course.

Then read what Mr. Sharkey wrote earlier today in his blog. Here is an excerpt:

The Federal Police in Brazil, having quickly finished what strikes me as a very dodgy investigation, are rushing to file criminal charges against the two American pilots as soon as they can.

The police will apparently claim that pilot negligence caused the crash, in that the Legacy's transponder (which is connected to the TCAS, the anti-collision alert) was not working for 55 minutes before the collision with a Gol 737 that sent all 154 aboard the 737 to their deaths on Sept. 29.

The police evidently will also trot out the long-discredited charge that the American pilots were also at fault because they failed to follow the filed flight plan (which -- and this is no longer in any dispute -- was superseded, as flight plans routinely are, by explicit instructions by air-traffic control to maintain 37,000 feet altitude).

We know that the transponder was not signaling. But why the transponder was not working is very much an open question -- unless one believes (as no one with the common sense of a turnip does) that the pilots deliberately turned it off.

He then recounts the International Federation of Air Traffic Controllers Associations (IFATCA) version of how the accident happened. He winds up his long but compelling blog post with press articles about the conclusions of the "investigation."

It has seemed, from the outset, that the Brazilian authorities have been only too anxious to assign blame to the Legacy pilots alone. It looks as though the investigation has focused solely on trying to find "facts" to support their theory. Their agenda seems to have been to find ways to justify a criminal indictment against the American pilots. Meanwhile, they have ignored, discounted or dismissed other information that might have led to a fuller understanding of what happened in order to prevent it happening again.

[Photo Source]

ExcelAire blames ATC for mid-air collision in Brazil last year

It's official: ExcelAire, the company that owned the Embraer Legacy 600 involved in a mid-air collision over Brazil last year, puts the blame for the accident on Brazilian air traffic controllers.

An  article published on AMTonline.com says:

The U.S. company that owned the executive jet involved in a mid-air collision with a commercial airliner blamed faulty Brazilian air traffic control for the accident that killed 154 people, according to a report obtained by the Associated Press on Saturday.

The Sept. 29 accident was Brazil's deadliest air disaster. A Gol airlines Boeing 737 and an ExcelAire Legacy 600 jet clipped each other, causing the jetliner to plunge into the Amazon rain forest and killing everyone aboard. No one was injured in the smaller plane.

In a 154-page report to Brazilian federal police this month, New York-based ExcelAire said an analysis of air traffic control transmissions and flight recorders in the Legacy "confirmed that both planes were freed by Air Traffic Control to fly at the same altitude and the same path, in opposite directions."

ExcelAire reportedly passed a copy of the report to the journalist several days ago.

For more details about the accident and the ensuing investigation, I'd like to direct you to Joe Sharkey at Large, the personal blog of the journalist who was a passenger aboard the Legacy at the time of the collision last September. Mr. Sharkey has written compellingly of his experiences that day, and has done a commendable job of reporting on the aftermath.

This past Saturday, Sharkey posted a retrospective view of the accident and the investigation. He summarizes ExcelAire's report "that details step-by-step the chain of on-ground mishaps and failures that put the two planes on a collision course, and also charges that important avionics equipment installed in the $24.7 million business jet, including the transponder unit, had a history of defects and were essentially used parts installed on a new jet."

Embedded in Mr. Sharkey's detailed post are links to 1) a four-page report about the accident by the International Federation of Air Traffic Controllers Associations (IFATCA); 2) a factual account from the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) on the progress of its investigation of the accident; and 3) an FAA airworthiness directive citing a problem with the type of Honeywell transponder that was installed on the Legacy, which also may have figured as a contributing factor in the accident. Also provided is an English translation of an article about the ExcelAire report that appeared in the Brazilian newspaper Folha.

Yesterday, April 22, Mr. Sharkey posted Part II of his review, in which he presents "highlights of documentation ExcelAire can cite and charges it will make in its own defense as Brazilian authorities continue their campaign to scapegoat the Americans." I recommend this as required reading for anyone who has been following this accident.

Mr. Sharkey has provided a link to the 134-page document, in Portuguese, and says he is trying to obtain the full English language version of the ExcelAire document as well. Or, as he says in his own words:

...I'm still hoping to post an English link soon to the whole 20,000-word text for those of you, including so many pilots who have remained in touch with me over this sad event, who want to know just precisely how one sorry mistake after another on the ground added up to cause the worst aviation disaster in Brazil's history.

When he posts a link to an English language version of the report, I'll post it, too.

Kudos to Joe Sharkey, first for championing the cause of the ExcelAire pilots -- who were criminally charged while the investigation had barely begun and held in Brazil for several months -- and for continuing to focus attention on the process of the accident investigation.

[Photo Source]

ATC partly to blame for September mid-air collision in Brazil

Speaking of air traffic control (as I did in the previous post), an Associated Press article on the Airport Business website is reporting that "Air traffic controllers share some of the blame for the midair collision over the Amazon in September that killed 154 people in Brazil's worst air disaster, a spokeswoman for the chief investigator said Monday." In that accident, a GOL Airlines B737 aircraft collided with an Embraer Legacy 600 business jet. The Legacy made a safe emergency landing, while the airliner and all those aboard were lost.

The pilots of the Embraer Legacy 600 executive jet, who survived the collision with a Gol airlines Boeing 737, as well as the air traffic controllers, will likely be held responsible when the official investigation is concluded in just over a month, said the spokeswoman, Tamares Carvalho.

Carvalho confirmed statements by lead investigator Renato Sayao to local media Sunday. It was the first time Brazilian authorities have said that anyone other than the two U.S. pilots of the executive jet could be held responsible for the Sept. 29 crash.

...

Because air traffic controllers are military personnel, federal police can only submit their findings to military justice officials, who would then decide whether to prosecute them, Carvalho said.

The air traffic controllers could face up to 12 years in prison on homicide charges and exposing an aircraft to danger because they failed to divert the Boeing after the Legacy disappeared from their radar, Carvalho said.

Carvalho said she did not know if authorities would pursue criminal charges against the American pilots - Joseph Lepore, 42, of Bay Shore, New York, and Jan Paladino, 34, of Westhampton Beach, New York - who have been formally accused by police with exposing an aircraft to danger.

In case you have not been following this story, here is a brief review of 'the story so far.'

After the accident in late September, the Legacy pilots' passports were confiscated to prevent them from leaving Brazil while authorities investigated the cause of the collision. In November, it was announced that warning systems failed in both aircraft before they collided.

Authorities claim the pilots should have noticed that the jet's transponder, which transmits the plane's altitude and operates its automatic anti-collision system, was not working at least 50 minutes before the collision. Investigators, however, have not been able to determine whether the transponder was turned off by the pilots or was shut off by a malfunction.

Ronkonkoma, New York-based ExcelAire, the operator of Legacy, said in a statement Monday the "pilots did not intentionally or inadvertently disengage the Legacy's transponder or TCAS (anti-collision) system and that there was no indication in the cockpit at any time during the flight that the transponder or TCAS system were not operational."

The Legacy was heading northwest on its maiden voyage from the southern city of Sao Jose dos Campos to the United States when the accident occurred at 37,000 feet, an altitude usually reserved for flights headed in the opposite direction.

Transcripts suggest the Legacy had been authorized by the tower in Sao Jose dos Campos to fly at 37,000 feet to Manaus, although that contradicted the plane's original flight plan.

Air traffic controllers said they believed the Legacy was flying at 36,000 feet at the time it collided with the Gol jet.

It wasn't until shortly before Christmas that the Legacy pilots were allowed to return to the United States. Before they left Brazil, they were charged with endangering air safety, and they were allowed to leave only after agreeing to return to Brazil "at any time during the investigation if authorities request it."

If there are more developments in this story, I'll be posting them here.

Midair collision said to cause Brazil crash

Several days ago, a Boeing 737-800 aircraft operated by Brazilian airline GOL, crashed into a remote area of Brazil's Mato Grosso state. The plane was on a scheduled flight from Manaus to Brasilia. All 149 passengers and six crew perished in the accident.

It is believed that the airliner was involved in a midair collision with an Embraer Legacy 600 business jet, resulting in the crash. The Legacy was damaged in the collision, but was able to make an emergency landing.

According to a Reuters report:

The crash appeared to have been caused by a collision between the Boeing and a small executive jet, the aviation authority ANAC said in a statement.

The executive jet, a Legacy 600 made by Embraer and owned by Excel Airways (sic), made an emergency landing at Cachimbo airforce base on Friday with five passengers on board, none of whom was hurt.

Its black box was being examined at Embraer's headquarters at Sao Jose dos Campos in Sao Paulo state. The Gol plane's black box has not yet been found.

Another article, on Bloomberg.com, elaborates further:

A Legacy jet that was flying in the area at the time of the crash made an emergency landing after the passengers and crew felt a jolt, said Leonardo Mota Neto, a spokesman for Brazil's airport authority. A photo of the Legacy posted on Brazil's civil aviation agency's Web site shows the tip of one wing missing.

"The commission's initial conclusion is that there was a collision between the Legacy jet and the Boeing plane," Denise Abreu, director of the civil aviation agency, which set up a commission to investigate the crash, told reporters in Brasilia last night. "It's not yet possible to say if the collision was because of equipment failures or pilot error."

Data from the black box of the Legacy, which was made by Brazilian aircraft manufacturer Empresa Brasileira de Aeronautica SA, helped investigators reach their conclusion, Abreu said.

CNN is reporting that all seven passengers and crew aboard the Legacy were Americans.

Police questioned the seven passengers and crew aboard the executive jet, which had been headed to the United States. The passengers, all Americans, included Joe Sharkey, a journalist for The New York Times.

The seven said they felt a bump, the plane shook and the pilot took manual control for the landing, Globo reported.

The New York Times reported that Sharkey sent an e-mail to his wife saying: "Neither of the pilots can understand how a 737 could have hit us without them seeing it."

Authorities have not given a definitive cause for the crash, and the investigation was continuing. Officials have said the investigation could take at least three months.

Sources: First bodies recovered from Brazil plane crash - Reuters AlertNet
Brazil Inspectors Say Boeing Had Midair Collision - Bloomberg.com
Recorders support midair collision - CNN.com

Technorati Tags: aircraft accidents, airlines, Boeing 737-800, Brazil, Embraer Legacy 600, Gol