Joe Sharkey At Large

This just in from down the rabbit hole, home of cracked logic and egregious contradictions that go utterly unchallenged, the land where nobody’s responsible for nothing. Warning, this could make your head hurt. From today’s O Globo in Brazil:

O Globo 23 November

Flight controllers say: there is a blind spot

Evandro Éboli, Brasília – The 13 flight controllers who were working in the towers of São José dos Campos (SP) and Brasília on the day of the collision between the Gol Boeing and the Legacy jet assured, in a deposition taken by the Federal Police, that there is in fact a blind spot, an area where radio communication is difficult, in the Amazon Region, where the accident happened. The information contradicts what the Air Force and the Minister of Defense, Waldir Pires, have been saying since the disaster, which happened on the 29th of September.

Lawyer Normando Augusto Cavalcanti, hired by the Brazilian Association of Flight Controllers to defend the 13 controllers, said yesterday that the existence of a blind spot is an unanimity between the professionals. Normando says they did not fail, and have no responsibility whatsoever for the accident. The lawyer pointed out two hypothesis for the cause of the collision between the airplanes: induction of error due to problem in the communication system, or error of the Legacy pilots. He says the controllers did everything they were supposed to do.

“They didn’t do anything wrong at all. There was no perception of the collision. The two airplanes were within their (flight) plans”.

[MY NOTE: The Legacy was indisputabily NOT within its flight plan, which would have had it at 36,000 feet beyond Brasilia. It was flying under flight controller instructions, which take precedence over a filed flight plan, at 37,000 feet, where the collision happened after the Legacy made 19 unsuccessful attempts to reach air traffic control.]

Computer may have induced error

Declaration of Air Force commander was “upsetting”

Brasília – According to lawyer Normando Cavalcanti, the controllers told the Federal Police that the induction of error may have been caused by the computer software. He said it isn’t a defect, but rather an imperfection in the adjustment of the radar, which can lead to a mistake about the exact position of the aircraft. …

The lawyer also said that the seven unsuccessful attempts of contact by the Brasília controllers with the Legacy before the collision were “more than necessary”.

[MY NOTE: The 154 people who died might disagree with that].

“For them, the Legacy knew what to do, and they believed it was at 36 thousand feet, as the flight plan established. They trusted the primary radar, as established in the code. … The lawyer said that everyone is being heard in the condition of witness, and not as suspects.

—ends

Here is the first preliminary report on the Sept. 29 accident issued by the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board, which had not planned to address these matters until the Brazilians issued their final report. With their air system suffering severe delays Monday and Tuesday from an air traffic controllers work slowdown and protest, Brazilian authorities asked the NTSB to publish what it knows so far. Under normal procedures, the NTSB’s reports would not be released until the Brazilians conclude their own investigation, a process that is expected to take at least ten more months.

It’s very technical, but those of you who have been closely following this case will find that the NTSB flatly states that the Legacy pilots were not fooling around in the sky, as some top Brazilian authorities have recklessly charged. The report also contains findings that suggest a breakdown in Brazilian air traffic control radio and radar contact over the Amazon. It confirms that the American pilots made 19 unsuccessful attempts to contact the flight control center at Brasilia in the 10 minutes before the mid-air collision at 37,000 feet with a Brazilian Gol 737 that went down with the loss of 154 lives.

The report also states that the final two-way contact between the Legacy and air traffic control in Brasilia occurred about 40 miles south of Brasilia, when the Legacy pilots “reported on the assigned frequency that the flight was level at 370.” [37,000 feet].

This is by no means the definitive report, but the story certainly has become more clear from an official viewpoint. And the American pilots are still being detained in Brazil.

———————————————————-
NTSB Advisory
National Transportation Safety Board
Washington, DC 20594
November 22, 2006
UPDATE ON BRAZILIAN INVESTIGATION INTO SEPTEMBER MIDAIR COLLISION OVER AMAZON JUNGLE

——————————————————————————–
The government of Brazil has asked the National Transportation Safety Board to disseminate the following factual information on the progress of its investigation into a midair collision over the Brazilian Amazon jungle on September 29, 2006, between a Boeing 737-800 (PR-GTD) operated by Gol Airlines of Brazil, and an Embraer Legacy 600 business jet (N600XL) owned and operated by Excelaire of Long Island, New York.
The accident investigation is being conducted under the authority of the Brazilian Aeronautical Accident Prevention and Investigation Center (DIPAA). Under the provisions of ICAO Annex 13, the United States, as state of registry and operator of the Excelaire Legacy, and state of manufacture of the Boeing 737 and Honeywell avionics equipment in both airplanes, has provided an accredited representative and technical advisors for the investigation. The U.S. team includes the accredited representative from the major aviation accident investigations division of the NTSB, as well as technical advisors in operations, systems, air traffic control, flight recorders, and aircraft performance. Additional technical advisors from Boeing, Excelaire, Honeywell, and FAA have also been included.

The accident occurred about 4:57 pm Brasilia standard time. The Boeing 737 was destroyed by in-flight breakup and impact forces; all 154 occupants were fatally injured. The wreckage of the 737 was located in remote jungle terrain with very difficult access. Brazilian military search and rescue personnel have located the flight recorders and all significant portions of the wreckage except the outer portion of the left wing. The Legacy N600XL experienced damage to its left wing and left horizontal stabilizer and performed an emergency landing at the Cachimbo Air Base, approximately 60 miles northwest of the collision site. There was no further damage to the airplane, and the 2 crew members and 5 passengers were not injured. The airplane remained at the base and significant components have been tested and recovered from the aircraft.

Visual meteorological conditions prevailed in the area of the accident. Both aircraft were operating on instrument flight rules, on instrument flight plans and clearances. The Boeing 737 was a scheduled domestic air carrier flight enroute from the Eduardo Gomes International Airport, Manaus, Brazil; to the Presidente Juscelino Kubitschek Airport, Brasilia. The Legacy N600XL was enroute from the Prof. Urbano Ernesto Stumpf airport, San Jose dos Campos, Brazil (SBSJ), to a stopover in Manaus, and eventually enroute back to the U.S. This was Excelaire’s initial flight with this aircraft, taking delivery from the Embraer factory and a planned flight to Excelaire’s home base in New York.

History of flights:

The Legacy N600XL departed SBSJ at about 2:51 pm. The filed flight plan included a routing via the OREN departure procedure to Pocos beacon, then airway UW2 to Brasilia VOR (BRS), airway UZ6 to Manaus. The cruise altitude was filed as FL370, with a planned change to FL360 at BRS, and to FL380 at the TERES navigational fix, approximately 282 miles north of BRS.

After takeoff, N600XL was issued a number of interim altitudes during climb, all of which were read back. The flight was cleared to proceed direct to Araxa VOR (on airway UW2), and at 3:11 pm was cleared to climb to FL370. At 3:33 pm, the airplane leveled at FL370.

At 3:35 pm, the Boeing 737 departed Eduardo Gomes airport, requesting FL370 as a cruise altitude, and a routing via UZ6 to BRS. The airplane reached FL370 at 3:58 pm. There were no anomalies in communications with or radar surveillance of the Boeing 737 throughout the flight.

At 3:51 pm, an air traffic controller in the Brasilia ACC (CINDACTA 1) instructed N600XL to change frequencies to the next controller’s sector. The crew of N600XL reported in on the assigned frequency that the flight was level at FL370. ATC acknowledged and instructed the crew to “ident” (flash their transponder). Radar indicates that the ident was observed. This was the last two-way communication between N600XL and ATC. At this time the airplane was approximately 40 nautical miles south of BRS.

At 3:56pm the Legacy N600XL passed BRS level at FL370. There is no record of a request from N600XL to the control agencies to conduct a change of altitude, after reaching flight level 370. The airplane made calls, but there is no communication in which it requested a change of flight level. There is also no record of any instruction from air traffic controllers at Brasilia Center to the aircraft, directing a change of altitude.

When the airplane was about 30 miles north-northwest of BRS, at 4:02 pm, the transponder of N600XL was no longer being received by ATC radar. A transponder reports a unique code, aiding radar identification, and provides an accurate indication of the airplane’s altitude. Additionally, the transponder is a required component for the operation of Traffic Collision Avoidance System equipment, commonly called the TCAS system.

Between 3:51 pm and 4:26 pm, there were no attempts to establish radio communications from either the crew of N600XL or ATC. At 4:26 pm the CINDACTA 1 controller made a “blind call” to N600XL. Subsequently until 4:53 pm, the controller made an additional 6 radio calls attempting to establish contact. The 4:53 call instructed the crew to change to frequencies 123.32 or 126.45. No replies were received.

There is no indication that the crew of N600XL performed any abnormal maneuvers during the flight. Flight Data Recorder information indicates that the airplane was level at FL370, on course along UZ6, and at a steady speed, until the collision. Primary (non-transponder) radar returns were received corresponding to the estimated position of N600XL until about 4:30 pm. For 2 minutes, no returns were received, then returns reappeared until 4:38 pm. After that time, radar returns were sporadic.

Beginning at 4:48 pm, the crew of N600XL made a series of 12 radio calls to ATC attempting to make contact. At 4:53, the crew heard the call instructing them to change frequencies, but the pilot did not understand all of the digits, and requested a repeat. No reply from ATC was received. The pilot made 7 more attempts to establish contact.At 4:56:54 pm the collision occurred at FL370, at a point about 460 nautical miles north-northwest of BRS, on airway UZ6.

There was no indication of any TCAS alert on board either airplane, no evidence of pre-collision visual acquisition by any flight crew member on either aircraft, and no evidence of evasive action by either crew.

Wreckage and damage examination indicates that it is likely the left winglet of the Legacy (which includes a metal spar) contacted the left wing leading edge of the Boeing 737. The impact resulted in damage to a major portion of the left wing structure and lower skin, ultimately rendering the 737 uncontrollable. Flight recorder information ceased at an approximate altitude of 7,887 feet.

After the collision, the crew of N600XL made numerous further calls to ATC declaring an emergency and their intent to make a landing at the Cachimbo air base. At 5:02 pm, the transponder returns from N600XL were received by ATC.

At 5:13 pm, an uninvolved flight crew assisted in relaying communications between N600XL and ATC until the airplane established communication with Cachimbo tower.

Investigative activities completed to date:

Flight recorders from both airplanes were recovered and downloaded at the Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) laboratories. Transcriptions of the cockpit voice recorders (CVRs) were prepared (the transcript of the Legacy’s CVR was produced at the NTSB’s laboratory in Washington, D.C.) and data from flight data recorders obtained.

Initial interviews and medical examinations were conducted with the crew of the Legacy. Air Traffic Control data was gathered. Preliminary tests of the avionics equipment on the Legacy were performed. Wreckage of the 737 was examined.

Future investigative activity:

Additional investigative work will include laboratory tests of the avionics components removed from the Legacy, an examination of the operating procedures of the avionics, interviews with ATC personnel, examination of ATC practices and comparison between Brazilian and FAA procedures, a technical examination of ATC communication and surveillance systems, and further examination of the training provided to the operators.

The Investigator in Charge estimates a 10-month timeline for the investigation. The first phase, data gathering is estimated to take approximately 45 days, although some further data gathering remains to be completed. Analysis of the data is estimated to take 90 days followed by a preliminary report with conclusions 120 days afterward. Preparation of the final report and review by involved parties and States is estimated at a further 30 days each.

Brazilian Contact: Brazilian Aeronautical Accident Prevention& Investigation Center 55-61-3329-9160

www.ntsb.gov/Pressrel/2006/061122a.htm

You’d be surprised at some of the reaction I’ve been getting to my steady criticisms of Brazilian authorities for detaining those two American pilots involved in the horrendous Sept. 29 mid-air collision.

It can be summarized this way: “Payback for Guantanamo! Serves them right for being Americans.”

This is a consistent theme among some nitwits in Brazil — obviously a small, organized segment — who could care less about the pilots or even the 154 other innocent people who died, and are only interested in invoking cheap irony (Payback!) in the service of anti-American hysteria. Much of that campaign appears orchestrated, as hundreds of hate e-mails I get from Brazil conclude with the same two sentences (only one of which I dispute): “You are such a shit of a journalist!” and “We have no Guantanamo in Brazil.”

I need to add here that I also am getting a lot of sensible feedback from intelligent Brazilians who are appalled by how this airplane accident investigation has gone off the tracks, and how it has exposed very dangerous flaws in the Brazilian air-traffic system.

But I’ve been appalled to hear the same theme — “Payback for Guantanamo!” — from a few people in the U.S. who basically are saying smugly “The pilots got what the U.S. deserved.”

This is the logic of death squads in Darfur and Iraq, not of civilized people. The U.S. government has been severely denounced, here and abroad, for the atrocities of Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib and the Iraq war in general.

These two pilots are not instruments of American imperialism. They’re a couple of straight-shooting family guys from Long Island who are being railroaded for political reasons.

In Brazil the issue is this:

Two American pilots involved in a fatal mid-air accident have been held for 53 days without charge and without a shred of evidence. They’re confined to a hotel in Rio, and judges have twice denied their appeals to have their passports returned.

Meanwhile, the Air Force, which runs Brazilian Air Traffic Control and has its fingers in its honeypot of a budget, is investigating itself, in an inquiry that authorities say might take as long as a year to conclude. Authorities have said the American pilots, Joe Lepore, 42, and Jan Paladino, 34, will be detained in Brazil until that inquiry is finished.

And in what I regard as a deliberate tantrum being thrown as a warning to Brazilian authorities not to even consider blaming Air Traffic Control for its obvious derelictions in the Sept. 29 crash, controllers have been staging work slowdowns that are snarling air travel throughout Brazil. If you’re planning a trip to Rio soon, my advice would be: Hold off for a while, unless you like sleeping in airports.

Yesterday, the Brazilian defense minister, Wonderful Waldir Pires, who until recently was publicly repeating the batty charge that the collision was caused by the American pilots doing “stunt maneuvers” in the Amazon skies to show off the newly purchased, Brazilian-made $25 million Legacy 600, seemed to have been struck by a fleeting moment of coherence. He actually conceded that an air traffic controller in Sao Jose dos Campos, where the Legacy took off from, instructed the Legacy to remain at 37,000 feet all the way to its destination in Manaus.

At the next air traffic control center in Brasilia, the American pilots tried 19 times to reach ATC by radio and were unable to do so. Thus, according to universally accepted international aviation protocols, they continued flying at 37,000 feet. At the same time, a Gol Airlines Boeing 737 was under orders from the air traffic control center in Manaus, its departure point, to maintain 37,000 feet — which put the two planes on the fatal collision course.

Wonderful Waldir tried to explain this away, saying the American pilots should have followed a pre-flight written flight plan that had them dropping to 36,000 feet past Brasilia. But aviation protocols the world over say you fly at the last altitude you were assigned by ATC, and the last altitude the Legacy was assigned to by ACT order was 37,000 feet.

The Brazilian Senate has been conducting hearings into the current air traffic mess that sometimes venture into the uncomfortable area of the Sept. 29 crash. Yesterday, Brigadier Luiz Carlos Bueno, the Air Force commander, allowed as how a glitch had occurred at the Brasilia ATC center on Sept. 29 when two controllers – handing over duties during a shift change – made an incorrect assumption that the Legacy was at 36,000 feet, in line with the filed flight plan.

The controller on the new shift then passed that information along to Manaus ATC, said Brigadier Bueno. There was no voice contact with the Legacy, whose pilots, as I said, tried 19 times, unsuccessfully, to get through to ATC in Brasilia. Cockpit recordings and other data prove this, incidentally. Like the batty “stunt maneuvers in the sky” charge, this is no longer in dispute.

Now, there is some serious speculation that a cockpit electronic communications device called a transponder might have been malfunctioning on the Legacy and possibly even on the 737, though no one has yet offered evidence of this. But pilots and other experts – many of whom say the vast Amazon skies are notorious for dead radio and radar zones, not to mention idle ATC chatter in Portuguese — have told me that a malfunctioning transponder itself would not have caused the crash. It simply would have made it more likely, once air traffic control began screwing big time up on the ground.

The newspaper Folha de Sao Paulo today quotes Brigadier Bueno as saying, “The controller believed that the plane was at 360 [36,000 feet]. It was a false piece of information but he did not believe that it was false.”

Please read that once more to get a flavor of this investigation.

The newspaper said it had learned that the 20-year-old controller in question was inexperienced and technically not cleared to work without supervision, and on duty only to plug holes in ATC staffing. “The first controller let the jet pass Brasilia without checking the foreseen change of altitude” as written in the flight plan, Folha said. “The second deduced that the data,” referring just to the flight plan, “were correct or already checked,” he said.

About a dozen flight controllers working at the ATC centers in Brasilia and Sao Jose during the time of the crash have been suspended. This is one of the reasons air traffic controllers all over Brazil are now tying up air travel in protest. But another, quite related reason for the protest is air traffic controllers have been complaining for years that they are overworked, badly paid and poorly supervised by a dysfunctional Air Force bureaucracy, and they’re fighting back now.

The suspended controllers, in a legal fight with their bosses, “will seek to show that the Brazilian air control works precariously” and that controllers work “under precarious conditions,” Folha said. Nearly all flight controllers in Brazil belong to the military. Besides long hours at ATC, they are also required to march in formation and do guard duty, like all good soldiers. Many also have second jobs. Several, for example, drive taxis to make ends meet.

Brigadier Bueno and Wonderful Waldir are in a bit of a fix here, as air travel in Brazil has been booming in recent years. They’re in a jam especially now, as the heavy summer travel season approaches in the southern hemisphere, and the biggest country in South America is experiencing air-travel chaos.

Brigadier Bueno insists all is well, despite those disgruntled air traffic controllers and those thousands of people sleeping in airport terminals. “Passengers don’t need to worry,” said Brigadier Bueno.

Meanwhile, aviation and travel organizations are finally making noise over the unwarranted detention of the American pilots, and the precedent it sets for criminalizing aviation accidents.

Incidentally, I’ve noticed that Brazilian President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva has remained very, very far away from this stink bomb. Shortly after the crash, Lucky Lula was handily re-elected in what had been a very hotly contested run-off election.

Here’s a letter the National Business Aviation sent to Lucky Lula the other day:

November 20, 2006
Excelentíssimo Senhor
Luís Inácio Lula da Silva
Presidente da República Federativa do Brasil
Praça dos Três Poderes
Palácio do Planalto
3o andar 70.150-900
Brasília
DF Brasil
Dear Mr. President:
This letter requests your immediate action to secure the return to the United States of two American pilots being detained in your country in conjunction with the tragic accident between a business aircraft and a Gol Airlines aircraft on September 29th.

The National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) supports a thorough, fair, accurate and transparent investigation into the accident. We expect nothing less.
It is our understanding that the pilots and their attorneys have fully cooperated with investigators from your government. Yet, despite their cooperation, the pilots are being held in contravention of internationally recognized practices and with no date certain for their release. This is an unacceptable situation that must not continue.

Based on the public reports of the accident, it is clear there was no intentional wrongdoing in this case. Preventing the pilots from returning to the United States is neither appropriate nor beneficial to the investigation.

NBAA urges your prompt intervention in this matter so that the pilots can be returned home in time for the holidays.

Thank you for your time and assistance with this critically important issue.

Sincerely,
Mr. Ed Bolen
President & CEO
National Business Aviation Association

Brazil’s largest newspaper, O Estado de S. Paulo, has a beauty of a quote online today from Wonderful Waldir Pires, the Brazilian defense minister who has done more frantic tap-dancing in the last month than Bill “Bojangles” Robinson did in a year.

Wonderful Waldir & Co. are in charge of Brazil’s air traffic system and its air traffic controllers (not to mention its honeypot of a budget). The controllers have been in something approaching a state of rebellion all month over the merest suggestion that ATC might have some responsibility for the Sept. 29 mid-air disaster over the Amazon. They’re continuing work slowdowns that are creating massive flight delays at some airports. What, I wonder, will they do if and when the finger of blame actually points at ATC? Oh no! There goes Carnival!

Anyway, Wonderul Waldir, summoned by the Brazilian Senate to account for the ongoing mess in Brazil’s air-travel system, was also asked about the Sept. 29 accident. He conceded that air traffic control in Sao Jose dos Campos gave the Legacy 600 private jet the order to fly to its destination, Manaus, at 37,000 feet all the way. Here’s what he said:

“The controller of the small airport in Sao Jose dos Campos used inadequate language. He said the following to the pilot: ‘You go up to 37,000 feet and fly until Manaus’.”

The newspaper added, “The minister believed this lack of clearness can have contributed to the collision.”

Sounds pretty clear to me. Both the Legacy and the Gol 737 that went down with 154 on board were under instruction from separate air-traffic centers to fly at 37,000 feet, which is where they were when they collided over the jungle between Brasilia and Manaus. As a Brazilian Air Force inspector told me with a sad shrug at the air base in Cachimbo the day after the Legacy made its emergency landing: “It’s simple physics.”

Meanwhile, the two American pilots of the Legacy remain detained in Brazil. It’s Day 53.

Well they assembled the always respectful media and issued their “preliminary report” in Brazil today, and except for some factotum saying the investigation would take another 10 months, there is nothing new there down the rabbit hole in Wonderland. Certainly no one in Brazil can be responsible for this disaster! Thus evidence must be found to support the denial that air traffic control in Brazil caused this crash. That could take months. Ten months, in fact. Now everybody go away! Off with you all, you are annoying us with these infernal questions!

See yesterday’s post here for … uh, an update on today’s news.

Meanwhile, I love those clueless wire service stories (and yes, A.P., I am talking about you — Reuters actually tried to make sense of the story) saying the investigation report concluded that the Legacy was flying at a different altitude than its filed flight plan. WE HAVE KNOWN THAT FOR WEEKS. The Legacy was at 37,000 feet because Air Traffic Control instructed it to remain at that altitude. We have also known THAT for some weeks now, but I guess the A.P. needed a lede. This business used to hire people who were curious to follow a story. Now they evidently are hiring stenographers.

The two American pilots, Joe Lepore and Jan Paladino, remain held hostage in Brazil to this political absurdity.

A preliminary report on the Sept. 29 mid-air collision that’s due to be issued tomorrow in Brazil will be sketchy and imprecise, according to outside investigators who have seen it. It will also be cleverly crafted to not directly assign blame to Air Traffic Control in Brazil, which is run by the Air Force — which in turn is conducting the investigation.

So take the Air Force report for what it’s worth. Nothing.

But remember, these are the guys, led by the Brazilian defense minister, the Wonderful Waldir Pires, who have regularly accused me of covering up for the private jet pilots who purportedly did “daredevil” stunts in the skies — which purportedly caused the mid-air collision at 37,ooo feet that killed 154 over over the Amazon.

OOPS! Tomorrow’s preliminary report, you will see, will address none of that. Turns out, you will see, that was just not true. Instead, the report — having simply ignored the loony loop-d-loops charge, supports Wonderful Walidr’s contention that, as far as he could see, everybody but his Air Force and its splendid first-world air traffic control system was to blame.

Independent U.S. and other world investigators have accees to the black boxes, radar data and other hard technolocal information in the crash. They are constrained from talking till the Brazilians get around to issuing final reports (months off, I am told). But many of them believe the Brazilian Air Force is dragging its heels for political reasons. Some ask: How could a purportedly first-world Brazil behave like such an evidently third-world Brazil in an air crash investigation? How are they getting away with this?

Here is what I understand happened in this crash:

1. Neither the Legacy 600 private jet NOR the Gol Airlilnes 737 with which it collided at 37,000 feet over the Amazon between Brasilia and Manaus were following their flight plans. The 737’s flight plan called for it to ascend to 39,000 feet just before spot where the collision occurred, while the Legacy’s called for a descent to 36,000 feet. But both planes were told to maintain 37,000 feet by air traffic control — in two different locations that were not in contact with one another. Under all international protocols, ATC instructions take precedence over a filed flight plan. The collision was mostly caused by a major breakdown in communications between ATC centers in Brazil, which are run by the Air Force.

2. A malfunctioning transponder in the Legacy might have — but this has not yet been proven — contributed to the fact that air traffic controllers failed to notice that the Legacy and Gol 737 were on a collision course.

3. As I know as well as anyone, since I was on the Legacy, the charge that the two American Legacy pilots were doing aerial stunts or trick maneuvers in the sky is absurd, and will be discounted as such in the preliminary report. The cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder prove that the Legacy was in straight and level flight when it collided with the Gol 737.

4. Cockpit voice recorder tapes — which the Brazilian Air Force is resisting releasing — will prove that the Legacy made repeated attempts to reach air traffic control before and after the collision that went unanswered.

5. As international pilots have been telling me for over a month (and even telling newspapers in Brazil), there continue to be gaps and dead zones in Brazilian radar and radio coverage, expecially over the Amazon, despite a recent $1.4 billion project under contract with an American defense contractor to fix the system. The Air Force insists this is not so. The Air Force is incorrect.

6. Pilots readily speak of having to communicate on Brazilian ATC radio through idle chatter by air traffic controllers speaking to each other in Portuguese. The official language of aviation the world over is English. Cockpit voice recorder tapes will show that Brazilian controllers — many of whom are not fluent in English — were speaking Portuguese to Brazilian aircraft and, in casual conversations, to each other.

7. The Brazilian Government is in violation of international treaties in detaining and holding as hostages two American pilots, without having charged them or even come up with evidence of a charge.

8. Given the linguistic, organizational and workforce mess in Air Traffic Control in Brazil, it is being argued in the aviation community that American passengers flying to Brazil may be at risk unless the pilots of U.S. airliners flying in Brazil speak Portuguese — or Brazil cleans up its act in ATC. To the extent that the aviation community publicizes this, it is a direct threat to Brazil’s $5 billion a year tourism economy. Already, I am told, travelers are asking travel agents and bookers whether it’s safe to fly in Brazil.

World aviation authorities will be paying close attention to a preliminary report to be released in Brasilia Thursday by Rufino Antonio de Silva Ferreire, who heads one of the most important government agencies investigating the Sept. 29 mid-air collision between a Brazilian airliner and a private jet, in which 154 on the 737 airliner died.

The preliminary report has been characterized as a “just-the-facts” document that will present official information (some of which is already well established and no longer in dispute) about the contacts between the private jet and 737 pilots with control centers in Brasilia and Manaus, the two cities between which the crash occurred at 37,000 feet over the Amazon.

Brazilian military officials, several of whom have suggested that the collision occurred because the pilots of the new Legacy 600 private jet were doing stunt maneuvers in the skies, have also been put on notice by a federal judge to become more transparent in their so-far secret investigation, and to finish up in 30 days. The Brazilian Air Force runs air traffic control and is responsible for investigating accidents.

The pilots and five passengers on the private jet, including me, have consistently insisted the Legacy was flying in a smooth, normal manner when the collision occurred.

A federal judge yesterday ordered the Air Force within 48 hours to hand over to Federal Police in Mato Grosso, the state over which the collision occurred, all of the information it has on the accident, including information on the two airplanes’ black box recordings and other flight and air-control data that the Air Force has insisted must be kept secret until its formal investigation is concluded.

Meanwhile, the Brazilian defense minister, Waldir Pires, responded to growing calls for an immediate release of the two American pilots, who have been detained in a Rio hotel since the crash. A lawyer for the pilots has argued that they are being detained, in violation of international law, without either a charge or a presentation of evidence.

According to Brazzil.com magazine, Mr. Pires pointed out that a judge, and not the Air Force, was responsible for retaining the pilots passports in a recent ruling on a petition for their release. “Someone who knows a democratic society should also know that the government cannot interfere in a judicial order,” said Mr. Pires.

Noted.

My opinion is that sound reason and good international sense are coming together. While I couldn’t venture a guess as to when the pilots might be released, it seems to me that authorities in Brazil — where emotions were understandably heated after the crash — realize that this unnecessary standoff benefits no one — not politically, legally or emotionally.

Not to mention the implications for Brazilan leisure and business travel: Is this a country where you can be suddenly siezed and detained, without evidence, because a plane crashed? Brazilian travel-industry officials need to consider this.

A thorough, honest and transparent investigation, if that is what now ensues, will provide the answers we all have been looking for, without holding pilots hostage to emotions. Brazil must look to its world-wide reputation.

A federal judge today denied the petition of two American pilots, held in Brazil since the Sept. 29 mid-air collision over the Amazon that killed 154, to be able to leave Brazil while the secret investigations into the crash drag on.

That was predicted here a few days ago, when the absurd charge that the Legacy 600 was doing reckless aerial maneuvers at the time of impact was suddenly revivified in Brazil. The aerial maneuvers charge was revivified just as it was becoming apparent that the pilots were about to be released, after reports that they were flying the private jet at 37,000 feet — on the same path and altitude as an approaching Brazilian Gol airliner 737 — under orders from Brazilian air traffic control.

The pilots, Joe Lepore and Jan Paladino, remain in seclusion in a Rio hotel. Their passports have been confiscated. Their lawyer in Brazil, Theo Dias, said he will appeal the judge’s decision on the ground that of all of the professionals involved in the accident, only the American pilots are being detained. Mr. Dias said that this “discriminatory treatment” will be challenged under the principle of habeas corpus, in that authorities have presented no evidence against the pilots to warrant their extended detention.

No, that isn’t a typo. I meant to write “ploy” and not “plot.”

In a new dispatch from the LoonyLand of Mythical Loop-d-Loops, get a load of this just in from my favorite crazy Brazilian publication (which is not to say it is the only crazy one; they got a country full of them) — Brazzil.com:

The headline is: “Lawyer Blames U.S. Pilots for Showing Off and Wants to Hear NY Times Reporter”

This latest Brazzil.com story says: The American lawyer Manuel von Ribbeck, the senior partner in a law firm that sued the American charter company ExcelAire and its two pilots on behalf of 40 families of victims who died in the horrendous mid-air collision over the Amazon Sept. 29, told Brazilian reporters that “he has enough evidence to prove that the American pilots made risky maneuvers over the Amazon rain forest to show off.”

“They were conducting such maneuvers,” stated the American lawyer, “because the company ExcelAire was happy with the purchase of the jet and wanted to show off the equipment to journalists and businessmen who were on the flight. Apparently, the Legacy’s pilots were making maneuvers, playing over the Amazon in a negligent way, and the government has confirmed this.”

It goes on: “Sharkey’s piece in the Times recounting his experience in the fateful flight was quite sympathetic to the American pilots’ cause and critical of Brazil’s authorities and skies management.”

First let me reiterate that nothing on this independent blog necessarily reflects the opinions or attitudes of the New York Times, for whom I contribute a weekly freelance column on business travel. This blog has absolutely no connection to the Times.

Now, as to the facts:

1. My piece in the Times was indeed sympathetic to the pilots (and it also expressed the survivors’ profound anguish about the dead, once we learned, three hours after we made our emergency landing in the jungle, that a 737 was what hit us). The Legacy pilots’ skill and courage saved my butt. But the Times piece said nothing whatsoever about “Brazil’s authorities and skies management.” A few days later, I made an offhand comment on CNN that Brazilian air traffic control has a shaky reputation among pilots. That’s where this whole bandwagon started rolling, and only after that did I begin to realize just what a mess ATC in Brazil actually is.

2. The “journalists” on the flight that was supposedly doing reckless aerial maneuvers to show off the plane’s capability consisted of but one, me. I’ve flown as a passenger in fighter planes and landed on heaving aircraft carrier decks; I’ve been up with the Blue Angels; I’ve been on helicopters slicing through palm trees in Vietnam to dodge small-arms fire. Trust me, I know when a plane is doing maneuvers!

As I have consistently said for what seems like ten thousand times since this crash, we in the Legacy were flying straight and narrow, in an utterly normal manner, when the impact occurred. Brazilian Air Force authorities falsely claiming otherwise are simply covering their butts, because they are responsible for air traffic control, and hard evidence will prove that the Legacy was being operated in a normal manner –once the secret investigations are complete months from now.

As to the “businessmen” who purportedly were to be impressed, they consisted of four other passengers. Two were executives of ExcelAire, which had just bought the plane for $25 million, and two were executives of Embraer, which had just sold it for $25 million. I’d say that is the definition of an already done deal. No need to pop some aerial wheelies there to get the customer to sign.

But stand by because Wonderful Waldir Pires, the Defense Minister who has been the most prominent of those making these reckless charges, is about to release his “preliminary report.” For all of us who tumbled down the rabbit hole, it ought to be fascinating reading.

There were strong hints last week that the two American pilots being held hostage in Brazil after a Sept. 29 mid-air collision over the Amazon that killed 154 were going to be released this week.

The reason for that is the Brazilian Air Force, and its boss, the dissembling Defense Minister Waldir Pires, had pretty much run out of excuses for detaining the two pilots while the secret investigations drag on. The Air Force is responsible for air traffic control, as well as for INVESTIGATING aviation accidents.

Prospects for scapegoating the pilots, Joe Lepore and Jan Paladino, both of Long Island, faded considerably two weeks ago when it became clear that the Legacy 600 business jet that collided with a Gol Airlines 737 was not defying Air Traffic Control orders and was flying at its assigned altitude, 37,000 feet, under orders from Air Traffic Control, which according to all international aviation protocols take precedence over a flight plan filed before takeoff. It so happened that the Gol 737 was also at 37,000 feet flying in exactly the opposite direction, under orders from Air Traffic Control, when the horrible collision occurred over dense jungle between Brasilia and Manaus.

Two weeks ago, ten air controllers who were on duty at the ATC centers in Brasil and Manaus during the crash were asked to testify. They refused, saying they were under psychiatric care. Hundreds of other controllers — saying they wanted to dramatize workplace stress and major faults with air traffic control in Brazil, as well as to protest what they saw was a shifting the blame to them — conducted a work slowdown and tied up air traffic in Brazil for over a week.

Mooting the question of pilot error for being at 37,000 feet left only three major plausible causes for the crash (and a host of minor ones, as there always are). The two most likely are egregious air traffic control error, perhaps in combination with a manfunctioning of the Legacy’s transponder, a device that helps air traffic controllers to more precisely identify the aircraft that they are already supposedly tracking on radar.

Neither of those causes would allow the Brazilians to reasonably continue holding the pilots as virtual hostages while their interminable overlapping investigations drag on. That left only one excuse: the batty notion, put in play weeks ago by Minister Pires and others, that the American pilots had deliberately turned off their transponder so they could do “trick maneuvers” or “aerial acrobatics” to put their new jet through its paces in the Amazonian skies.

Keep in mind that there will be hard evidence from black boxes and radar to show that this never occurred — but that evidence has not been released by the secretive Brazilian authorities.

Then last week, the lawsuits began. One of them, filed in New York Thursday by the Chicago law firm Ribbick Law, named the pilots among the defendants, accusing them of acting “carelessly and negligently.”

Yup. The asinine charge that the pilots were doing trick maneuvers in the sky has now become part of a legal proceeding. It’s Loop-d-Loops in LooneyLand time.

I try to keep myself personally out of this story, while updating you on developments, though obviously I have a strong point of view here. So you can imagine my astonishment when I read the following in a report on the suit that ran, datelined Sao Paulo, Nov. 9, on the Dow Jones news wire:

“The lawyers will seek damages from the pilots, Joseph Lepore and Jan Paul Paladino, and from ExcelAire [My note: that's the Long Island air-charter company that had just bought the $25 million Legacy 600 and that employs the two pilots] BASED ON A DEPOSITION FROM NEW YORK TIMES JOURNALIST JOE SHARKEY. SHARKEY’S DEPOSITION ALLEGES THE PILOTS WERE INDULGING IN INAPPROPRIATE MANEUVERS TO TEST THE PLANE. [my caps] That accusation was also made by defense ministry investigators, said Monica Kelly, a partner at Ribbeck Law, during a press conference in Sao Paulo.”

In a separate story by the Associated Press that does not mention my apparent psychotic episode as suggested by Dow Jones, Manuel Von Ribbeck, the law firm’s senior partner, was quoted as saying: “Someone high up in the Air Force confirmed our theory of negligence by the pilots. Unfortunately, I cannot reveal any names.”

Unfortunately.

Now, if you do a word search on “maneuvers” or “trick” in entries on this blog since I startd writing about this event, you will see that I have consistenty ridiculed as asinine the notion that Joe and Jan were doing trick maneuvers or any other sort of unusual maneuvers at any time on that flight. We flew smooth and steady, in an utterly normal manner, till the time of the impact. In fact I was calmly working on my laptop when the collision occurred.

In questioning during two days of detention in Brazil, first at the jungle airbase in Cachimbo where we managed an emergency landing, and later in an all-night interrogation at a police headquarters in Cuiaba hundreds of miles south, I was emphatic that any suggestion of trick maneuvers was untrue, and I continued to reiterate that in dozens of media interviews after I got home, including one on the major Brazilian T.V. network “Globo” where I answered the question this way, just so there wasn’t any doubt: “No, no, no. no, no, no, no! Absolutely not! No, no, no!” Not eloquent, but I thought it drove the point home in simple English to a Portuguese-speaking audience.

I contacted Dow Jones and asked for a correction, which has now run on their news wire. The reporter who covered the press conference in Brazil — who hadn’t tried to contact me for comment before running the story about what I allegedly said in a deposition — called last night and apologized for “the terrible mistake.”

He had not seen my deposition, he said. (Neither have I, incidentally). Attorney Kelly, he said, had mentioned my deposition and made the allegation, “in a room full of reporters,” that I accused the pilots of aerial hot-dogging. I may have missed it in the Portuguese press, but so far the only place I have seen that charge has been on the Dow Jones wire.

Now, I worked for Dow Jones at the Wall Street Journal for seven years, and it is a world-class outfit. We all make mistakes in this business, and when we do we correct them in a forthright manner, which is exactly what Dow Jones did last night. It said:

“The story “Victim’s Family Sues Honeywell, Excel on Brazil air crash” … incorrectly stated that Joe Sharkey, a New York Times journalist [My note: I write a freelance weekly business travel column for the paper and am not on staff, and nothing on this blog reflects any endorsement or involvement by the New York Times], alleged the pilots of an ExcelAire jet involved in a midair collision were indulging in inappropriate maneuvers during a deposition to Brazilian authorities. Sharkey has consistently said that the plane was flying in a completely normal manner when the impact occurred.”

O.K., fair enough from my perspective.

But a judge is going to rule tomorrow in Brazil on whether the American pilots should be allowed to leave (they’re holed up in a Rio hotel under virtual house arrest). And from what I hear through my fairly active grapevine from Brazil, the answer is likely to be no, now that these Flying Circus charges have been revitalized by the air force — desperate to keep blame from itself — with the assistance of the Chicago lawyers.

I’ve seen this coming for some time, as you know. Almost from the start of the investigations, Brazilian authorities have been recklessly talking about “aerial stunts” and “trick maneuvers” by the Legacy pilots, usually asserting that the pilots turned off the transponder solely to try to hide their airborne antics.

On Oct. 4, when the investigation had barely begun, Geraldo Piero, a director of the Federal Police in Mato Grosso, the state where the crash occurred, was one of the first to speak about charging the pilots with a serious crime. Make that, one of the first to suggest the pilots were guilty of a crime.

Listen to this beauty of a statement from him, four days after the accident:

“We will start investigating if the two pilots caused the accident, and if they are proven guilty they could be charged with involuntary manslaughter,” he said. “Preliminary investigations indicate that the pilots may have turned off the transponder,” he said, adding: “They knew the risks they were running and nevertheless they took certain attitudes that endangered the lives of people.”

Minister Pires, meanwhile, is rushing to get out his agency’s own version of an informal “preliminary report,” while the official investigations are not expected to be completed for many months.

He said the other day that his preliminary report will be issued this week. He said, “It is an important instrument not only to tell who are the culprits, but especially to teach us about what happened so that we can prevent new tragedies …”

The Brazilian news account on this development assured readers that Brazilian congressmen have been taken for visits to air traffic control centers around the country and “were told in no uncertain terms by the military that there is no possibility this accident was caused by a failure from traffic controllers, radars or communication radios.”

Hmmmmm, a mystery! I love mysteries! I wonder who will be named as the “culprits” in this preliminary report? A clue: “The Brazilian Air Force is convinced that Lepore and Paladino deliberately turned off the Legacy’s transponder. The American pilots, however, have denied turning off the transponder or doing air acrobatics as they have also been accused of.”

So is the fix in? And where is the international aviation community? Has it collectively “slipped the surly bonds of earth,” to quote that wonderful poem that makes aviators dewey-eyed.

Shortly after this tragic event occurred, various aviation groups issued declarations about the growing tendency to criminalize air accidents and look for someone — whether pilots or controllers or whomever — to charge with a crime. Others called on Brazil to conduct a fair and timely investigation.

For example, in an Oct. 11 statement, the Allied Pilots Association, the union that represents 13,000 American Airlines pilots, said it was confident the Brazilian authorities “will conduct their investigation in a manner commesurate with Brazil’s standing as a great nation” and said that everyone affected by the investigation would remain “in our thoughts and prayers.” The statement ended, “APA officials will have no further comment for the duration of this accident investigation.”

In an Oct. 5 statement, the Flight Safety Foundation said, “We call on the Brazilian government to stay strong in the face of immense pubic pressure and to continue to respect the integrity of the investigation and not rush to judge the various players in this incident.” On Oct. 18, major aviation groups in the U.S., England and France issued a joint resolution decrying “the increasing tendency of law enforcement and judicial authorities to attempt to criminalize aviation accidents, to the detrement of aviation safety.”

The statement added, “We are increasingly alarmed that the focus of governments in the wake of accidents is to conduct lengthy, expensive and highly disruptive criminal investigations in an attempt to exact punishment, instead of ensuring the free flow of information to understand what happened and why, and prevent recurrence of the tragedy.”

Such fine words, men and women of aviation! Not to mention the “thoughts and prayers” of the American Airlines pilots union. (Jan Paladino, incidentally, is a furloughed former American Airlines pilot).

But listen, aviation community: Your two colleagues down there in Brazil are being held hostage for political and financial reasons, and it’s time you moved away from the copy machines with your grand statements. It’s time for you to stand up for them.

Right now, the international commmunity of pilots all know that what is going on in Brazil is a travesty. I suggest you forget the great statements and appoint some spokespeople to get on some old-fashioned soapboxes and mount a public drive, to put some pressure on Brazil, and perhaps Brazil’s important tourist industry, to straighten up and fly right in this incident and to get the Legacy pilots home by Thanksgiving.

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