The Morning News: A Flawed Aviation System? Oh-My-God!

Thirteen months ago, when I lurched home after the Brazilian aviation system failed in its attempt to kill me over the Amazon (though succeeded in killing 154 other poor souls), I made a comment on CNN that pilots and other experts considered Brazil's skies unsafe.

Notoriously poor conditions throughout air-traffic control, coupled with internationally known poor conditions in radio and radar coverage, especially over the vast Amazon, meant that pilots flew carefully over Brazil.

I mean, this was not in dispute among international pilots.

But when I uttered those few sentences in a radio interview, you'd have thought I said that Alberto Santos-Dumont snatched the Lindbergh baby.

Unless you read the comments from Brazil on this blog starting last October (when I had to temporarily shut down operations because the reaction was frankly scaring my family) you simply would not believe the vitriol that poured in, including numerous death threats. Plus, I was being routinely denounced by politicians in Brasilia -- including the estimable, since-fired Defense Minister Wonderful Waldir Pires -- as a hateful, cold-blooded American imperialist killer for merely pointing out the obvious.

And 13 months later, with the death toll now at 353 in two air disasters in Brazil, nothing has been done by the Brazilian authorities to address the systemic problems in Brazil's air space. That is perhaps because they have been so busy pointing fingers of blame.

Anyway, here's an interesting column from today's news in Brazil. Note the quote from one Brazilian air traffic controller saying that controllers had been warning for a long time about the air-traffic-co9ntrol communications "black hole" -- in the very region where the Sept. 29, 2006 mid-air collision occurred. Translation, as usual, by our intrepid correspondent Richard Pedicini in Sao Paulo:

"Valor Econômico

Flipperama of Death

Claudia Safatle

Now 93 days in the role of minister of Defense, Nelson Jobim simply ignores the demands of air traffic controllers, who for more than a year, since soon after the Gol accident on September 29, 2006, have gone public to expose a crisis of which society did not have the slightest idea.

It was after the collision of the Gol Boeing with the Legacy jet, which resulted in the deaths of 154 passengers that, placed in the center of the accident's causes, the controllers exposed their dissatisfaction with working conditions and opened a season of chaos at the country's airports, culminating in the mutiny in March of this year.

Today, representatives of the controllers protocoled at the Ministry of Defense their third request for an audience with the minister. The first two got no response.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva doesn't want to know about the existence of this problem and also isn't considering receiving them.

There are close to 2,700 controllers entrusted with the control of civil aviation traffic, 80% of these being military (sergeants and sub-officials) and the other 20% being civil service system workers and workers under the ordinary labor laws. All of them work under the command of the Air Force and demand, as an initial step toward the solution of all the remaining differences, the demilitarization of air traffic control.

Currently, besides Brazil, the military controls civil aviation traffic only in Paraguay and Uganda. One is not dealing with mere stubborn dislike for the model, the controllers argue. For them, militarization is at the heart of the enormous management difficulties for structural reasons.

"Dealing with the military is slow. We had already been complaining for three years about the 'black hole' in the Serra do Cachimbo range (where the collision between the Gol Boeing and the American jet occurred) and nothing had been done. But civil aviation is dynamic, it needs rapid responses", one operator evaluated.

After the March mutiny, Lula gave the Air Force commandant, Juniti Saito, carte blanche to resolve the controllers' case.

The commandant began to act to solve the contentions based on the principles of hierarchy and disciple which guide military action. He imposed a Law of Silence, which created a climate of apparent normality, and has been punishing with arrest any misstep of those under his command, suspended all those who were union leaders to eliminate what is called in the area "negative leadership" and at the Integrated Center for Air Defense and Air Traffic Control 1 (Cindacta I), all the higher level employees were removed from management functions and substituted by military men who do not have, necessarily, the same knowledge and experience.

Saito tamed the movement, producing, as a counterpoint, a climate of enormous tension among the controllers, who continue to work to guarantee the safety of passengers basically under the same conditions that they denounced as improper last year.

"This year there were already five cases of AVC - cerebral vascular accidents - among controllers after the mutiny", recounts an experienced worker. Besides the reformulation of salaries and the creation of a single career path for the three cases (military, civil service, and ordinary labor laws), the controllers insist on demanding the demilitarization of the sector as a solution for the grave management problems that they've identified.

As an example, several controllers cite the adoption of a software program developed by the Atech company which the controllers condemn for more than five years as not being trustworthy. "The target, at times, disappears or the software provided the wrong position", an operator observed. At the Air Force Command, however, there's a refusal to discuss the question.

The Gol tragedy in 2006, followed by the disaster with the TAM Airbus A320 on July 17 and two Parliamentary Commissions of Inquiry (CPIs), show an aviation crisis without precedents.

The country discovered that air traffic control has very grave flaws, that the routes were dangerously concentrated on a airport in the middle of the city of São Paulo, that the organs charged with managing the sector did not function, among various other evils.

The government filed away the report produced by an interministerial working group created last year to propose solutions. Suggestions there included the creation of a civilian body linked to the Ministry of Defense, to deal with civil aviation; the maintenance of a shared system of monitoring air space; reformulation of the controllers' career path and salaries; new hires; and an independent audit to evaluate the conditions and needs of the system not only in personnel but also in infrastructure and technological updating.

For the air traffic controllers' movement, besides an audience with Jobim, it's worth opening negotiations with the Secretariat of Human Resources of the Ministry of Planning to correct salary distortions - a civilian controller who leaves São José dos Campos in December to work for the Cindactas will begin with a monthly salary only R$ 100,00 less than that of controllers with 30 years of experience.

And they will continue with the work of persuasion behind the scenes, with the staff of the ministry of Defense. On the government's side, the worst that Jobim could do is to believe piously in the declaration he made the day before yesterday, in Rio, when he said that of the three pillars of the sector, punctuality, regularity, and safety, only the last is already settled. On this theme, there is no room for plays of words nor for volunteerism. Really, there's no room for any kind of game.

###

The Morning News: Fingerpointing Fandango (Cont'd).

No, they haven't fixed anything in the faulty aviation system in Brazil since the disaster over the Amazon just over a year ago (unless you count drastically reducing the number of flights allowed to use Sao Paulo's dangerous Congonhas airport after the July air crash disaster there).



They're too busy pointing fingers, as they have been now for over for a year. Undoubtedly, corruption is rife in the aviation system. But financial corruption had nothing directly to do with why two aircraft were placed on a collision course at 37,000 feet over the Amazon on Sept. 29, 2006, resulting in 154 deaths. And note, in the second item, that action has been taken against an air traffic controller -- for talking to the media.

Some fresh excerpts from the news, translation as usual courtesy of Richard Pedicini in Sao Paulo:


"Via FAB clipping

O Estado de S. Paulo

Controller is under arrest for giving interview

The director of mobilization of the Brazilian Association of Air Traffic Controllers (ABCTA), sergeant Edleuzo Cavalcante, is since yesterday serving in Brasila the eight days of administrative jailing that he received from his heirarchical superiors, for having given an interview, in which he criticized the FAB Command, without authorization from his boss. During the day the sergeant works normally and at night stays at the barracks of the 6th Regional Air Command.

xxx

Via Aeroclipping

O GloboVoting of Aviation Blackout CPI report is put off Report referee asks for accusation of 23 people and accuses ex-president of Infraero of heading gang

BRASILIA -- The final report of the Senate Aviation Blackout CPI [my note: that's one of a handful of investigative committees] accuses the ex-president of Infraero, congressman Carlos Wilson (PT-PE), of commanding a "gang" set up in the state-owned firm, accused of diverting close to R$500 million in construction work at 11 airports. The voting of the report, authored by senator Demóstenes Torres (DEM-GO), was put off until Tuesday, after the PT party congressman Jogo Pedro (AM) asked for time to read the report, at the government's direction.

With this, the Planalto [presidential palace] gained time to lay out a strategy to remove from the document the names of directors of Infraero accused of fraud. Despite saying that the supposed scheme of corruptions crosses party lines, the report harshly attacks the management of [now congressman Carlos] Wilson. The ex-president responded strongly accusing Demóstenes of being "long known for the practice of talking loud". The senator talked back, ironically: "(Carlos Wilson) is the St. George of a brothel, seeing everything and doing nothing."

The report recommends the accusation of 23 people, among them Wilson and National Civil Aviation Agency ex-director Denise Abreu. And asks for the Federal Police to trace the bank accounts of 18 contractors and consortiums supposedly benefited by the [airport construction] bids. Though them, almost R$1 billion flowed, the CPI points out.

The document accused the state firm's ex-director of engineering, Eurico José Bernardo Loyo, of "being the patron and intermediary of private interests along with the administration of the Infraero firm."

xxxx

Folha de S. Paulo

Marcelo Neves: Anachronistic Militarism

I only found five countries, besides Brazil, which maintain total control of air traffic under the reponsibility of the military

THE RECENT crisis in the aviation sector may throw light on the question of the linking of civil aviation, especially air traffic control, to the Air Force. The constitutional consistency and the social adequacy of militarization of this highly globalized sector are questioned.

In relation to the consitutional consistency, it's verified that, as per Article 142 of the Constitution, the Armed Forces "are destined to the defense of the Country, the guarantee of the constitutional Powers and, for initiative of any of them, of law and order".

Within the orientation of the strict delimitation of the attributions of the Armed Forces in relation to the redemocratization set down in the 1988 Federal Contitution, the amplification of its functions on the level of infraconstitutional legislation is debatable.

However, Brazilian legislation led the the hypertrophy of the Armed Forces by means of militarization of a civilian sector in prejudice to the constitutional model of strict delimitization of its functions.

More problematic still is the question relative to the capacity of one of the Armed Forces, the Air Force, to respond to the demands of civil aviation in a complex global society.

In this particular, it's relevant to consider the solution of the problem in comparative law. I only found five countries, besides Brazil, that maintain total control of air traffic under the responsibility of the military: Eritreia, Ethiopia, Somalia, Uruguay, and in transition to demilitarization, Argentina.

Among the developed countries in Western Europe and North America, civil aviation is out of the field of competence of the military sector. Some examples are illustrative.

In the United States, the greatest military and warlike power, the cornerstone of the regulation of civil aviation was set in 1926, when the sector was subordinated to the Department of Commerce. In 1958 was created, in this department's sphere, the Federal Aviation Agency, which had its name changed to Federal Aviation Administration in 1967, when it was linked to the Department of Transportation.

At no time, in the USA, a country which supervalues "national defense," were the Armed Forces given the role of regulating of operating civil aviation, including air traffic control, except for interference in time of war. ..."

###

Aviator Day in Brazil

That's Santos Dumont, of Brazil, and some people believe, though it's in dispute, that he and not the Wright Brothers of America is the founder of modern aviation. He is at least one of early powered flight's great characters. Certainly, unlike the secretive, workmanlike Wright Brothers, Dumont was among the first to luxuriate publicly in the sheer joy of powered, manned flight.

{On the other hand, he really didn't live all that much time in Brazil, which had little to do with his accomplishments. See a reader's note at the bottom.}

No need to impose any further irony on the current situation. It's Aviator Day in Brazil, and attention should be paid. Thus this from the Jornal do Brazil, translation from the Portuguese as usual by Richard Pedicini in Sao Paulo. But do note the slightly defensive undercurrent with the side current of xenophobia. Sounds familiar to me:

"Dahas C. Zarur

There is no doubt on Santos Dumont's flight. It was undertaken on October 23, 1906 under the eyes of an immense crowd and the French Air Club, under the presidency of Ernesto Achdeacon, signed a historic document, giving to the Brazilian aviator priority as the first human to fly in a heavier than air craft, impelled by a motor - an achievement never reached in the long history of Mankind.

Any sort of propaganda is useless that has the objective of usurping the glory of Santos Dumont acclaimed by kings and by the people on dismounting from his 14 Bis, formed by a set of Hargrave-type kite cells, made of a a bamboo screen, with a 50 hp motor. Santos Dumont flew in the eyes of Paris, then the capital of the world, and covered 200 meters in 21 seconds, corresponding to a velocity of 41km/h. Citizen of the world, on returning to Brazil, in a visit to his family, singer Eduardo Alves saluted him: "Europe bows to Brazil and shouted congratulations in tender tones; there shines in the sky one more star. Santos Dumont appeared."

Nothing will destroy the glory of that Brazilian who, tired of being news, stopped flying in 1910, dedicating himself to literature. He traveled the world, spreading the sensations and risks of being an aviator, his hard life, the hard tests he was submitted to (painful and difficult tests) until he made his first flight, and from this after flying without knowing if he would reach his destination, if they would return to their homes, to their families, hours and hours, days and days without setting foot on earth. That is what happened. Man could fly like the birds. Today, distances have been made shorter, thanks to the airplane and the expertise, the dexterity of aviators. A trip that was made in months, can be realized in hours. Today the skies are full to gigantic aircraft, carrying hundreds of people, on comfortable and secure voyages to the most distant points of the universe, with highly qualified personnel.

Santos Dumont, in 1904, wrote "Dans l'air" translated by Miranda Bastos, with the title "My Balloons" ["Meus Balões " is the Portuguese].

"My Balloons" was carefully written. In it, Santos Dumont tells of his infancy and his life as an argonaut before inventing the airplane. He had no greater concern than in describing the emotions of the Deutsch Prize - which he won on October 13, 1901, when in a dirigible balloon he circled he circled the Eiffel Tower and returned to Saint Cloud within the rigorous time of 30 minutes. It was at this moment that pacifist leader Jean Jaurés wrote:"Today were are all in the shadow on one man."Tired of being in headlines, he stopped flying in 1910, after playing in the skies of Paris with his minuscule Demoiselle. He dove deep into literature and wrote a series of articles for the principal newspaper of France and the United States. He traveled the world and stopped again in Brazil, going to Petrópolis, where he would write his third book, " What I saw and what we will see", in whose pages already appear symptoms of a disturbed mind.

The title "The mechanical man" was published, whose originals he locked in his office, not delivering the work to his publishers. Diplomat Aluísio Napoleão, however, revealed stretches of the work, in which Santos Dumont, in contrast to the previous book, showed full rational capacity when he wrote: "It was, I can say, (said about 1929), a very painful trial for me to watch, after my work on the dirigibles and heavier than air aircraft a few years earlier, the ingratitude of those who covered me with laurels years earlier. I feel embarrassed on having to speak of myself - "I" is odious to me - in order to defend these witnesses and this consecration that sometimes seems to have been forgotten".

"There is in this more a proof of my gratitude, than a claim. This last would be, alas, useless, because history will not be written except with the passage of time and with facts and documents. Some years pass and everything is forgotten".

The millions of dollars spent in publicity, with the objective of destroying the glory of Santos Dumont in favor of the Wright Brothers, did not have the least result. Alberto Santos Dumont, however, will eternally have the primacy of flight. Destiny wanted him to see an aerial combat in Santos, São Paulo, in 1932, among legalist and rebel airplanes, during the Constitutionalist Revolution, with the apparatuses falling into the sea. Commenting to a relative who was with him, he said:"It was not for this that I invented the airplane!"

No longer was Santos Dumont feted by kings and princes. His happiness was to walk along the beach, with a group of children. Santos Dumont lies under an enormous Icarus, in São João Batista Cemetery, in Rio de Janeiro, a copy of the Saint Cloud monument, a long ways from the mausoleum of the Brazilian Academy of Letters. His immortality is in the skies full of aircraft and spaceships. ... "

{On the other hand, a reader adds:}

Hi, Joe!

As you are well aware, Santos Dumont did invent AN airplane. He did not invent THE airplane. Many cobbled together flying machines about the time that the Wright Brothers ENGINEERED, thus invented the first airplane and flew it successfully prior to Dumont and others. The Wright flights after 1903 developed into more and more capable machines. Dumont faded after his first flight a year at least after the Wrights.

Santos Dumont was a citizen of Brazil, but resided in France. He had access to French facilities and materials, likely not available in Brazil then. Other than producing Dumont, Brazil had little to do with it. The talented Dumont accomplished many things and deserves credit for them. However, it seems to me that he used his common sense, but not thorough engineering systematic analysis and study leading flight as did the Wrights. The aviation industry grew due to the efforts of the Wrights and Glen Curtiss as did nothing else. Of course, they were both citizens and residents of the United States.

I check your blog every day for the latest down South. Sometimes Brazzil.com, too. The current attitude of Brazil reflects poorly on Dumont.
Ralph M.

###

Hey, Here's an Idea: Stop Blaming People and Fix Your Busted Aviation System Before Somebody Else Gets Hurt

More than 350 dead in a year, and what have Brazil's government and Air Force done to address manifest major problems in its aviation system, which has been called flat-out "unsafe" by international aviation agencies? Nothing, actually. Rather than taking the effort to make their skies safe, thereby accepting responsibility, they just keep blaming individuals, which is ever so much easier. Translation by Richard Pedicini:

Air traffic controllers' leader is charged
October 9, 2007 – 13:15

The Air Force Command has asked for the administrative jailing of the vice-president of the Brazilian Federation of Air Traffic Controllers' Associations (Febracta), Moisés Gomes de Almeida. According to an article published this Tuesday by the newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo, the military accuses Almeida of having planned the mutiny which paralyzed air traffic in the country starting on March 30 of this year.

The accusations that weigh against Almeida – of incitement and insubordination – are based on messages left by him on the relationship site Orkut in the month of August. There, the vice-president of Febracta urged the category to make donations for the payment of a legal opinion requested from jurist Marcelo Neves on air traffic control in several countries.

In the text, Almeida made veiled criticisms of the Brazilian Air Force (FAB). The Air Force was not, however, cited directly. When the content of the posts reached the knowledge of the Air Force command, it was decided to begin an administrative inquiry.

###

Unsafe Skies? Why, I Oughta....

How DARE They Say These Skies Are Unsafe!

…Uh, because more than 350 people died in two separate horrendous accidents in Brazil in the last year, and that’s not counting the close calls. Uh, because the Brazilian military (which runs air traffic control) has toiled endlessly to assign blame to the American pilots in the Sept. 29 accident (no one lived through the July accident to get blamed. Uh, because Brazilian air traffic controllers are underpaid, unhappy, poorly trained and in many cases even unable to respond to or speak English, the lingua franca of aviation the world over.

Every significant international aviation and pilots and even air traffic controllers associations have condemned Brazil's atrocious performance, including its extremely unwise politicization and criminalization of accidents.

And now we again have the spectacle of Brazilian military authorities again going into their familiar defensive crouch. The latest salvo at Brazil comes from the international association of

First, this from today’s Brazzil Magazine (www.brazzil.com), whixh is published in English. Evidently, Wolderful Waldir Pires – the Colonel Blimp-like defense minister who insisted the American pilots were doing loop d loops when the crash occurred, has been replaced by more of the same. Where do they GET these officers! (Oh, I forgot, the country was a military dictatorship for about 25 years):

Brazil Outraged by Suggestion that New Air Accident Is Matter of Time

Sunday, 07 October 2007

Brazzil Magazine

Brazil Outraged by Suggestion that New Air Accident Is Matter of Time

Written by Newsroom

Friday, 05 October 2007

The head of an international air traffic controllers organization who said that it was only "a matter of time" before there was a new air disaster in Brazil was rebuffed by Brazilian Defense Minister, Nelson Jobim, Brazil's top aviation official.

In a interview to Brazil's official government news agency, Radiobrás, Minister Jobim defended Brazil's air traffic control system and said comments that another air accident was inevitable were politically motivated.

"This is a game within the corporation, in other words, they're playing politics. We can't excuse this type of manifestation," Jobim told Radiobrás.

Jobim's remarks came in response to comments Marc Baumgartner, president of the International Federation of Air Traffic Controllers made to the BBC Brazil Wednesday at a seminar in the United States.

According to BBC Brazil, Baumgartner said "it's a question of time before a new air accident happens again in Brazil."

Baumgartner also harshly criticized the Brazilian Air Force, which oversees the nation's air traffic control system, for trying to punish the controllers involved in the Sept. 29, 2006 crash of a Boeing 737 operated by Gol Linhas Aereas Inteligentes SA over the Amazon, killing all 154 people aboard.

"The Brazilian Air Force invested lots of energy to arrest and prosecute its own workers but none to fix its (air traffic control) system," Baumgartner was quoted by the O Globo news agency.

The September 29 crash was Brazil's worst air disaster until July, when a TAM Linhas Aereas SA Airbus crashed into a warehouse in São Paulo killing 199 people. The second accident had wide ranging political repercussions, with many accusing the government of failing to act on problems exposed by the Gol crash.

Following the accident President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva sacked Defense Minister, Waldir Pires, and named Jobim who was given full support to implement all reforms he considered necessary to improve the Brazilian air system.

One of the steps taken was to redistribute operations from Brazil's busiest air terminal Congonhas in São Paulo to other airports and drastically cutting flight delays and cancellations. Jobim is also considering the possibility of handing air traffic control from the Air Force to civilians.

However Jobim admits that to a certain extent the "feeling of lack of safely and chaos persists" and has repeatedly requested for support from travelers.

Earlier this week, a military court declined to indict five Brazilian air traffic controllers in connection with the Gol crash. Military prosecutors want to try four of the controllers on charges of breaking regulations, and the other one faces charges of involuntary manslaughter.

Four of the controllers and two American pilots who were aboard and executive jet that collided with the 737 still face charges in a civilian criminal court in connection with the accident.

A Congressional commission investigating air chaos in Brazil just issued its final report. The report excluded a request to indict four air traffic controllers in connection with the Gol crash but supported the indictment of American pilots Joseph Lepore and Jan Paladino.

FROM THE READERS COMMENTS SECTION:

That is Brazil excluding to indict the Brazilians at the source of the plane crash, but wishing to indict innocent foreign pilots !!!!!!

Ohhhh and a cheap but good safety idea for your airports :

DONT PUT YOUR FUEL RESERVES TANKS.....AT THE END OF A LANDING STRIP !!!!

Even idiots know this, but Brazilians are more idiots...than idiots !

Brazil is an arachaïc and medieval country.

Proof of it is that you still harvest most of your sugarcane as you did....200 years ago, when Australia has mechanized 100 % of their sugarcane harvests.....over 25 years ago !

Brazil is simply a shame to humanity, a shame to justice and social inequality !

Are you not ranked within the WORST 10......on this planet ?

YESSSSSS.....you are !

Viva Bin Lula and his 4000 thieves !

Ch.c did you take your meds today?

written by Shelly, 2007-10-06 21:03:41

Ch.c "but Brazilians are more idiots...than idiots !" Do I need to take the spoon off your ass? Or you forgot to take your meds today? You generalize, should I say all Swiss citizens have blood in their hands? Dirty money from the sale of drugs, kidnapping, corruption, flows in your banking system with no questions asked, dear, should I generalize it too?

Why would the head of a air traffic controller trade association play politics - more annoying fake bravado by a Brazilian politician/ government figure

written by ADD, 2007-10-06 23:34:49

I have lived in Rio for 4 years married into a good Brasilian family.

The Brasilian constitution needs to be overhauled. One of the most flagrant flaws is the immunity enjoyed by elected officials from serious punishment for stealing from public coffers...to the extent of not having to return the stolen money or forfeit future positions or pensions. There is absolutely no real punishment if a crooked politician gets caught. They all posture acting highly insulted when someone demonstrates they are crooks or they are incompetent or mendacious or all of the above . Its absurd.

Why would the head of an international air traffic controller trade association play politics? Its absurd. I'd be inclined to believe that Mr.Baumgartner sees problems with the Brasilian Air Traffic Control functions.

...

Once again Brazilians like you, just as usual, point their fingers elsewhere instead of at themselves. Just the same as for the plane crash when you want to indict the innocent foreign pilots but not those Brazilians at the source of the tragedy.

As to bloods, you forget that due to the voluntary mess in your society created by your politicians and governments, Brazil is one of the most violent country.....on this planet.

Did you know that 50 % of youths deaths in Brazil, aged 15-24, is due to violent deaths ?

Is this how Brazil controls its population growth ?

Yessssss Brazilians are more idiots than the average idiots.

But you truly EXCEL in cheating, lying and hiding !

"Baumgartner is a Swiss"

Who is this Junkie BUM GARTNER? Is he from Geneva? Do you know him personally? He sounds to me like another card carrying member of the "Party".

You better keep a close track on this fellow smilies/grin.gif

"Why would the head of an international air traffic controller trade association play politics ? It is absurd"

written by ch.c., 2007-10-07 05:17:33

It is not absurd...in Brazil, where they firmly believe that everything is politic.

(The comments go on, and on)

Meanwhile:

How DARE They Say These Skies Are Unsafe!

And here's a new one. In terms of odious outrage, this one ranks right up there with the nitwit band of reporters who confidently parroted some victim's lawyer's utterly false assertion that I had testified that the Legacy was doing illegal maneuvers at the time of impact.

For the record (and this is means for the U.S. readers trying to keep track of this insanity, the Legacy's radio was not turned off. Brazilian radio coverage over the Amazon is notoriously and without dispute in very bad shape. Only a sociopath would turn off the radio.

Translation by Richard Pedicini in Sao Paulo:

Legacy pilots flew with radio off
The pilots had omissive conduct, because they were only under "radar surveillance"

Agência Estado

A year having passed since the collision between the Legacy jet and the Gol Boeing, which killed 154 people on September 29 of last year, the official Air Force documents produced until now on the investigation leave no doubts: despite the controllers performance having been a "contributing" factor in the accident, the "determining" factor in the tragedy was really the two North American pilots Joseph Lepore and Jan Paul Paladino.

The Military Police Inquiry (IPM), which investigated and indicted the controllers for "carelessness" and "lack of diligence", is explicit on proving that the pilots had "omissive conduct", since they were only under "radar surveillance" by air space control, and not under "radar vectoring". This, in aeronautic language, means the following, without margin for subjective interpretations: the Brazilian controllers served as a bridge for contact and support, but, under radar surveillance, "the responsibility for navigation is that of the pilot in command of the aircraft", as the IPM says.

Brazilian Air Foce (FAB) officers listed for a reporter some point of the omissive conduct of Lepore and Paladino, who were taking the Legacy, purchased by the ExcelAire firm, from São José dos Campos (SP) to the USA. The pilots had to follow a flight plan registered in São José dos Campos and had to follow the indications on the aeronautic chart, which is a required document in the command cabin. The controllers were "careless" is supplying support services to the pilots, giving information that was truncated or in half, but Lepore and Paladino were always advised that they were flying in a condition of "radar surveillance".

The most objective point of the omissive conduct of the North American pilots is in respect to radio communication. Neither they nor any other pilot in any part of the world needs controllers to know at what frequencies they should position their communications apparatus. The navigation charts register the frequencies sector by sector. Lepore and Paladino knew that in Sector 9, between São José and Brasilia, the frequencies are 125.05MHz 133.10MHz and 121.50MHz. On entering Sector 7, in Brasilia to Manaus, the frequencies are 123.30MHz, 128.00MHz, 133.05MHz, 135 90MHz and 121.50MHz. The frequency 121.50MHz appears in all of the sectors because it is the universal emergency band.

On September 29 of last year, it was not because the Brazilian controllers supplied some incorrect radio frequency that the Legacy pilots did not communicate with Brasilia (Cindacta-1) and Manaus (Cindacta-4) or fail to make the so called communication "bridges" [relaying via another aircraft]. According to the IPM, the reason was this: their airplane had the radio turned off, just as was also turned off the transponder, a set of antennas which make contract between the airplane, the ground radars and the anticollision system (TCAS). And everything was activated by the pilots, after the collision with the Boeing.

For about an hour, between 18h50 e 19h48, the Legacy made a blind flight, with all the communications systems turned off, thus not permitting that the Brazilian Cindactas entered in contact with it. What another inquiry, the Investigation of Aeronautic Accidents (IAA) is checking is why the Legacy apparatus was turned off. The TAB does not understand how the pilots flew so long without noting that they were without radio.

###

Here's the latest. In terms of odious outrage, this one ranks right up there with the nitwit band of reporters who confidently parroted some victim's lawyer's utterly false assertion that I had testified that the Legacy was doing illegal maneuvers at the time of impact.

For the record (and this is means for the U.S. readers trying to keep track of this insanity, the Legacy's radio was not turned off. Brazilian radio coverage over the Amazon is notoriously and without dispute in very bad shape. Only a sociopath would turn off the radio.

Translation by Richard Pedicini in Sao Paulo:

Legacy pilots flew with radio off
The pilots had omissive conduct, because they were only under "radar surveillance"

Agência Estado

A year having passed since the collision between the Legacy jet and the Gol Boeing, which killed 154 people on September 29 of last year, the official Air Force documents produced until now on the investigation leave no doubts: despite the controllers performance having been a "contributing" factor in the accident, the "determining" factor in the tragedy was really the two North American pilots Joseph Lepore and Jan Paul Paladino.

The Military Police Inquiry (IPM), which investigated and indicted the controllers for "carelessness" and "lack of diligence", is explicit on proving that the pilots had "omissive conduct", since they were only under "radar surveillance" by air space control, and not under "radar vectoring". This, in aeronautic language, means the following, without margin for subjective interpretations: the Brazilian controllers served as a bridge for contact and support, but, under radar surveillance, "the responsibility for navigation is that of the pilot in command of the aircraft", as the IPM says.

Brazilian Air Foce (FAB) officers listed for a reporter some point of the omissive conduct of Lepore and Paladino, who were taking the Legacy, purchased by the ExcelAire firm, from São José dos Campos (SP) to the USA. The pilots had to follow a flight plan registered in São José dos Campos and had to follow the indications on the aeronautic chart, which is a required document in the command cabin. The controllers were "careless" is supplying support services to the pilots, giving information that was truncated or in half, but Lepore and Paladino were always advised that they were flying in a condition of "radar surveillance".

The most objective point of the omissive conduct of the North American pilots is in respect to radio communication. Neither they nor any other pilot in any part of the world needs controllers to know at what frequencies they should position their communications apparatus. The navigation charts register the frequencies sector by sector. Lepore and Paladino knew that in Sector 9, between São José and Brasilia, the frequencies are 125.05MHz 133.10MHz and 121.50MHz. On entering Sector 7, in Brasilia to Manaus, the frequencies are 123.30MHz, 128.00MHz, 133.05MHz, 135 90MHz and 121.50MHz. The frequency 121.50MHz appears in all of the sectors because it is the universal emergency band.

On September 29 of last year, it was not because the Brazilian controllers supplied some incorrect radio frequency that the Legacy pilots did not communicate with Brasilia (Cindacta-1) and Manaus (Cindacta-4) or fail to make the so called communication "bridges" [relaying via another aircraft]. According to the IPM, the reason was this: their airplane had the radio turned off, just as was also turned off the transponder, a set of antennas which make contract between the airplane, the ground radars and the anticollision system (TCAS). And everything was activated by the pilots, after the collision with the Boeing.

For about an hour, between 18h50 e 19h48, the Legacy made a blind flight, with all the communications systems turned off, thus not permitting that the Brazilian Cindactas entered in contact with it. What another inquiry, the Investigation of Aeronautic Accidents (IAA) is checking is why the Legacy apparatus was turned off. The TAB does not understand how the pilots flew so long without noting that they were without radio.