Around 5:00 pm, on a clear day, somewhere over the state of Mato Grosso, the Legacy and a commercial airliner, a Boeing 737, brushed past each other.

The Legacy was slightly damaged and managed to land. The Boeing, belonging to Gol Airlines, flight 1907 from Manaus to Brasília, crashed in a remote region known as the Serra do Cachimbo killing all 154 people aboard.

Lepore and Paladino were actually taken into custody in Brazil immediately following the accident. They were later released on the understanding that they could face criminal charges.

Since the accident, many Brazilian authorities and relatives of the victims have clamored for a trial of the American pilots. A trial has taken place, part of it by teleconference with the pilots testifying in the United States.

This week, a federal judge in the municipality of Sinop (population 106,000), in the state of Mato Grosso (near where the Boeing crashed), found Lepore and Paladino guilty of causing the accident and gave the two American pilots a limited-custodial sentence (“pena em regime semiaberto” – that is, the prisoner must spend the night in jail but can leave during the day) for a period of four years and four months.

In his sentence, the judge, Murilo Mendes, made it clear that the pilots were responsible for the accident. However, he then converted the sentence into community service in the United States and ordered the suspension of their pilot’s licenses during the period of the sentence.

The judge’s ruling can be appealed to a higher court and, as a matter of fact, the Mato Grosso state office of government attorneys (“Ministério Público Federal em Mato Grosso – MPF-MT”), immediately announced that they will file an appeal seeking a stiffer penalty for the pilots .

The Association of Relatives and Friends of the Victims of Flight 1907 released a note saying the sentence by judge Mendes left them in a state of “consternation and anger.” A lawyer for the association declared the relatives and friends wanted a maximum sentence of imprisonment.

He also criticized the alternative sentence. “Although the time to be served is long, the fact that it will be served doing community services in their country (the US) means it amounts to practically nothing, it is nil,” the lawyer said.

The pilots attorney has also announced that he will file an appeal since he considers that the punishment is too severe. For Theodomiro Dias Neto, defense lawyer, the sentence wasn’t too far from what they wanted. He announced he would appeal however, because the judge wasn’t consistent in his ruling.

Can any sentence be enforced, however? Most experts believe that any ruling is unenforceable and probably won’t be accepted by the American justice so the pilots won’t be subject to any punishment not even some symbolic community service. A Brazilian judge has no jurisdiction in the US. Besides, there is no extradition treaty between both countries on the matter at hand.

Judge Murilo Mendes has his doubts his ruling can be enforced. According to him, there is “a question of sovereignty.”

He stressed, however, that there is a treaty between Brazil that might help the fulfillment of the sentence. “Provided there is cooperation by the US authorities. Since this is a cooperation treaty we imagine that cooperation will occur,” he said.

Lepore and Paladino, the judge ruled, will have to serve their sentence in a Brazilian institution in the United States. The original sentence was detention in a halfway house, which was commuted by judge Murilo Mendes from Sinop, a city in Mato Grosso. The sentence that can be appealed also determines that both pilots are forbidden from working as pilots.

The judge rejected, however, the request of the federal prosecutor (MPF), who had asked that the American be compelled to repair the damage they caused the victims’ families. The judge argued that he had not enough data in the case to arrive at an estimate of losses.

The prosecution accused the pilots of neglect at the time they set up their flight plan, by failing to inform the Brazilian air control that the aircraft conducted by them, the Legacy jet manufactured by Brazilian company Embraer, had no authorization to fly in airspace with reduced vertical separation minimum (RVSM).

They also charged the pilots with turning off the collision avoidance system (TCAS) and keeping it off during the whole flight, according to the report produced by an expert and also by the Cenipa, Brazil’s Center for Research and Prevention of Accidents.

The crash occurred in September 29, 2006, over the Amazon Forest, in the north of Mato Grosso state. The Legacy jet piloted by the Americans collided with Gol Airlines’ Boeing 737.  All 154 people aboard, passengers and crew died. After leaving Manaus, the Gol flight was to stop in Brazilian capital Brasília and then go on to São Paulo.

After the crash, Lepore and Paladino, despite some damage in the Legacy jet, were able control the plane and land it at the Brazilian Air Force’s Air Base in Serra do Cachimbo, in the state of Pará.

Four flight controllers had also been accused by the prosecution of having caused the accident. Judge Murilo Mendes tried the case in 2008, summarily absolving Felipe dos Santos Reis and Leandro José Santos de Barros a partially absolving the other two: Jomarcelo Fernandes dos Santos and Lucivando Tibúrcio de Alencar.

Currently, Paladino works at American Airlines while Lepore is still an employee at ExcelAire, the air taxi company ExcelAire from Long Island, that owned the Legacy that crashed.

For Theodomiro Dias Neto, the pilots’ attorney in Brazil, the sentence wasn’t too far from what the defense was looking for. He says the judge
acquitted the Americans of 5 of the 6 charges of negligent conduct they were accused of. “It is a huge distance from what was said in the early days of the accident,” he said.

He announced he will appeal the sentence, however, because the judge wasn’t consistent at the time of passing the sentence, ruling for a punishment that is too severe.

The sentence also didn’t please the relatives of victims. “They’ll just go to have coffee at the Brazilian Embassy and the judge thinks this is enough. Nothing will happen,” said Rosane Gutjahr, whose husband died in the crashed plane. “They will continue free, living a normal life while we go on crying.”

The lawyer for the families, who served as assistant prosecutor, also announced he will appeal the decision.

“By all evidence presented, we expected full condemnation, with the maximum penalty to be served inside a prison. Although the penalty is high, it’s useless to replace it with community service in their country of origin,” said Dante D’Aquino, the lawyer who represents the Association of the Victims’ Families.

The document found the collision between the planes could have been prevented if the US pilots from the Legacy had not, inadvertently, put the executive jet's transponder in stand-by position, in fact, turning off the vital equipment.

The instrument would have activated a system anti-collision that would have averted any solid object on its way. The tragedy, on September 29, 2006, became at the time Brazil's worst  air accident. In 2007 Brazil suffered an even worse air calamity, when an Airbus crashed on landing leaving 199 dead.

The new report mentions a series of mistakes by the American pilots and the air traffic controllers. The document tried to meticulously reenact what happened in the air in the minutes and hours before the crash, using among other elements both aircraft's black boxes and radar data.
 
The Air Force Social Communication Center, informed Saturday, December 6, the final report would be shown first to the relatives of the accident's victims this coming Wednesday, December 10, in Brasí­lia, at the Cenipa (Center for Investigation and Prevention of Aviation Accidents). The results of the inquiry, however, were leaked to daily Folha de S. Paulo, which has published its conclusion.

The Air Force is not denying the veracity of the Folha's report, but isn't confirming it either. And it is saying that it didn't find any errors of project or integration in the communication instruments (transponder and TCAS – the anticollision device) aboard the N600XL (the Legacy).

According to the Brazilian air authorities, the two American pilots, Joseph Lepore and Jan Paladino were interviewed, individually, at the NTSB (National Transportation Safety Board) headquarters in Washington, between January 29 and 31.

In their testimony, they told the Brazilian team that they did not take any intentional action that would turn off the transponder and the anticollision system of the aircraft. They also said that they didn't notice and don't remember having done anything that could have caused the interruption, accidentally, of the mentioned equipment.

On the other hand, the report determined that there is no reason to believe that the crash was caused by any deficiency in radar coverage, one factor that was mentioned in the weeks following the disaster, since there has been much criticism of the radar system implanted in Brazil, especially in the Amazon region.
 
The transponder, according to the official account, was incorrectly handled by Lepore and Paladin. The mistake consisted in turning off the equipment seven minutes after the Legacy overflew Brasí­lia. The device was turned on again only three minutes after the fatal collision, when the US pilots noticed that the transponder was in the stand-by mode.

The probe shows that the transponder remained inoperative, i.e., it didn't send any information to the Brasí­lia's air traffic tower for 58 minutes.

The Brazilian air authority sees a succession of mistakes leading to the crash. The first error was made by the Brazilian air traffic controller in São José dos Campos, the city from where the brand new plane was making its maiden flight to the company that bought it, ExcelAire from New Jersey. That flight operator didn't give precise instructions to the US pilots and told them they should fly at 37,000 feet all the way to the Manaus Airport.

The air controllers in Brasí­lia were also mistaken when they were unable to notice that the Legacy was not following the flight plan and had the wrong altitude. Besides, the military controller on duty also did not realize when the transponder was turned off.

Still another mistake took place when a new operator took control. The new controller was told by the colleague, who was leaving, that the Legacy was flying at 36,000 feet when in reality the executive jet was in a collision course with the Boeing, at 37,000 feet.

And once again nobody noticed that the transponder was disconnected. For 50 minutes there was no communication between the small plane and Brasí­lia's control tower. When the Manaus control tower took over, the wrong information on the altitude was again passed along.

According to the FAB, the American pilots weren't trained enough to pilot the Legacy and also were not aware of the flight rules in Brazil. The Brazilian norms adopt the standard from the ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization). These rules specify that the flight plan must be rigorously obeyed.

The Americans, however, used FAA's (Federal Aviation Administration) procedures, which are the ones current in the United States. These rules establish that a flight plan should be maintained until orders to the contrary from the air traffic controlling tower.

There is also information that when the pilots attempted communication with Cindacta-1, the Brasí­lia tower,  they were not heard because another aircraft in the area interfered with the connection.

The inquiry concludes that it's not its intention to point fingers and assign blame, but to establish what factors contributed to the crash in order to avoid similar tragedies in the future.

As a result of the investigations new guidelines are being suggested to the different organs linked to the civil aviation, in Brazil and abroad, to improve flight safety.

One of them proposes that the transponder be improved since it was noted that's possible to confuse data from the airplane's radio with those from the transponder itself.  Moreover, the equipment can go into stand-by due to the pilot's negligence. Other recommendation is that a sound alarm be devised for airplanes and air control center that would go off when a transponder stop operating.

The reporter of a congressional inquiry about the air traffic crisis in Brazil, representative Marco Maia, from the ruling Workers Party (PT) commented that the Air Force's report conclusion once again stresses the need that Lepore and Paladino be brought to justice. Maia defends the idea that the American pilots should be held responsible criminally for the accident.

Franco, talking to the House Air Blackout committee in charge of a congressional inquiry probing air traffic in Brazil, presented what he said was a 112-page document containing a transcript from the Legacy's black box.

The transcript, says the representative, shows that the Americans didn't know how to use the Legacy and even confessed they were lost during a stretch of their trip from São José dos Campos in São Paulo to Manaus, the capital of Amazonas state. At 4:36 pm the copilot asks the plane commander where are they to which the pilot responds: "I don't know."

For Franco, who belongs to the DEM party, the documents he obtained change the course of the investigations: "They prove that officials from Embraer (Brazilian Aircraft Manufacturer) helped the pilots to use the plane, they meddled into the cockpit, gave some hints. The pilots didn't know well what they were doing."

According to the new transcript, Joe Lepore, the pilot, after confessing that he is lost decides to snooze. The document shows that at 4:39 pm, 17 minutes before the collision, Lepore tells his copilot Jan Paladino: "I'm gonna take a nap." The catnap lasts until 4:55 pm, just one minute before the accident.

The new information once again raises the possibility that the Legacy had its transponder turned off before the collision occurred.

From the document:  "At 4:12 pm the copilot (Paladino) asked whether the commander (Lepore) wanted to turn off a certain device. The commander said yes. At 4:59 pm, three minutes after the crash, the copilot finds out that the TCAS (Traffic alert and Collision Avoidance System) is turned off and he orders that it be turned on."

Franco says that the reading of the transcript  made him aware that the US pilots went astray from their course. He told the House committee: "At 4:16 pm, the pilot says, "Let's go a little in that direction." And then a little later he tells to go back to the previous route. Now, if he needed to come back then it means that he wasn't in the right one."

Still according to the congressman, Paladino, the copilot, noticed that there was something wrong with the radio frequency while the pilot took a nap and he tried, unsuccessfully, several times, to contact the Brasí­lia control tower.

"They are crucifying the controllers when the pilots were the ones acting with total imprudence and piloting a plane without having the smallest familiarity with the equipment," said the House representative. And here he added: "Unfortunately, however, these pilots will never again step their feet in Brazil."

Franco says that no air controller can be indicted from culpable homicide (with intention to kill): "Nobody left home that day with the intent to kill 154 people."

Franco also questioned Frederico Curado, the Embraer (the Legacy manufacturer) president over the presence of Embraer officials in the Legacy's cockpit.

According to the transcript, says the legislator, the American pilots, asked at least one Embraer official to give them information on how the airplane worked, evidence that they didn't know how to operate the Legacy.

Curado answered that the company's officials inside the Legacy were from the commercial area. And he continued, "Whether there was any participation by them, I officially ignore."

This Friday, May 25, he has asked a federal judge in the state of Mato Grosso, where the Boeing fell, to indict six people: four Brazilian flight controllers and the two American pilots. Andrade says that these six men's imprudence and negligence are the reason for the collision between the two planes.

The military justice prosecutor, Giovanni Rattacaso has announced that the whole case will be taken care by the civilian justice. For some time it was believed that the flight controllers, the great majority of which are military men, would be dealt with by the Brazilian Air Force.

Among those being formally charged is Air Force sergeant Jomarcelo Fernandes dos Santos, a flight controller from Cindacta 1, Brasí­lia's flight control center. Santos and everybody else should be indicted for "willful crime of assault against aircrafts security." In Santos case there are aggravating circumstances though.

He is accused by the prosecution of exposing the flight to danger "knowingly and in a voluntary manner." Santos is regarded as the main culprit for the accident. According to the prosecution, the flight controller handed over the Legacy's flight plan to the other controllers, without telling them the aircraft altitude should be changed, which contributed to the collision.

While the pilots and three controllers, had their crime characterized as culpable negligence, Santos crime was characterized as malicious. "I understood that Jomarcelo's conduct was willful, that it was conscientious and voluntary. He knew very well that he was putting at risk the aircraft," said the prosecutor.

The three other Air Force sergeants who were working at Cindacta 1 at the time of the accident and are also being charged are Lucivaldo Tibúrcio de Alencar, Leandro José Santos de Barros and Felipe Santos dos Reis. American pilots Joseph Lepore and Jan Paul Paladino complete the list.

The prosecutor says that he is going to ask the judge that the American pilots be heard in Sinop, in Mato Grosso State, according to the bilateral cooperation treaty between Brazil and the US.

The prosecution also says that it concluded that Lepore and Paladino turned off the Legacy's transponder, something that was noticed only after the accident. The American pilots are also accused of not following the flight plan. 

Federal Judge Murilo Mendes, from Sinop in the state of Mato Grosso, should announce next week if he will accept or not the indictment request. It's expected that he will say yes based on the federal police's inquiry.

Before returning to the United States, in December 8, Lepore and Paladino had already been arraigned by the Federal police for "exposing to danger vessel or aircraft," even though authorities concluded at the time that they had not done that intentionally.

At that time the Federal Police investigation was still going on. Police chief Renato Sayão only concluded his effort on May 7. In the 41-page final report, however, Sayão maintains that Lepore and Paladino should be blamed for the planes collision. If convicted of the crime, both pilots might get from four to eight years in jail.

Theodomiro Dias Neto, the criminologist who heads the two pilots' defense team reacted indignantly to the prosecutor's announcement:  "It's nonsense that the press knows about this beforehand," he said.  "Anyway, it seems premature to me to file charges without knowing the result of the technical investigation being done by the Aviation Accidents Investigation and Prevention Center (Cenipa).

"The pilots reiterate the purpose of demonstrating that they acted with professionalism, in conformity with the international rules of aviation, and they believe in the judicial recognition of their innocence."

They call the Brazilian action a dangerous precedent that will not contribute to avoid other accidents in the future. Dan Hubbard, a spokesman for the National Business Aviation Association told reporters: "We will keep our opposition to any criminal charge in this case and we regret the Justice’s decision."

On Friday, December 8, Lepore and Paladino, after a 6-hour interrogatory, in São Paulo’s Federal Police headquarters, in which they remained silent, were charged with "culpably exposing to danger a vessel or aircraft," a crime contemplated in article 261 of Brazil’s Penal Code.

The leaders of several aviation organizations tried to avoid till the last minute that the arraignment occurred. They sent a joint letter to the Brazilian justice commending the Court decision to release the Americans and "renewing a call that criminal inquiries not be made a part of investigations into any party involved in the accident."

The pilots had their passports confiscated and were held in virtual house arrest in a Rio hotel since the Legacy executive jet they were piloting collided with a Boeing 737 killing all 154 people aboard on September 29.

"Since September 29, the international community has been calling for a through investigation into this tragic accident," the letter reads and continues:

"In order to fully understand the causes behind any accident, investigators must carefully examine all evidence, including the information that is collected from interviews with those operators most directly involved. Collection of crucial data must be free from any interference by the penal system, as fear of prosecution and/or imprisonment will only deter witnesses who may be willing to assist in the investigation.

"… A criminal inquiry has no place in the investigation of any party’s role in this accident. We are pleased that your criminal authority is working to release the pilots involved in the accident, and we implore you to also set aside any criminal component in your investigation of the involvement of air traffic controllers or other parties in the events of September 29."

The letter concluded saying: "We understand the need for a grieving public to want to see justice served, and we do not seek to put our colleagues above the law. However, criminal investigations into aviation accidents like the one on September 29 are at odds with efforts to discover root causes of accidents and avoid future mistakes."

The letter was signed by the leaders of the Flight Safety Foundation, the National Business Aviation Association, the International Federation of Air Traffic Controllers’ Associations, the Civil Air Navigation Services Organization and the International Federation of Air Line Pilots’ Associations.

Lawyers

"The decision to accuse Joe and Jan of criminal wrongdoing is irresponsible in the face of overwhelming evidence that exonerates them," said Robert Torricella, a Miami-based lawyer for ExcelAire, the employer of the two American pilots.
"The Brazilian Federal Police is telling the world that pilots who fly in Brazil can be accused of crimes for doing nothing more than complying with applicable aviation regulations and following air traffic control directives. This is an alarming precedent for the international aviation community."

"We had hoped that the police investigation would be conducted with integrity and transparency, and that they would have listened to the pilots’ testimony before making baseless accusations," said José Carlos Dias, Brazilian counsel for the pilots.

"We are disappointed that the police investigator could not rise above the politics of the matter and let the facts determine its actions."

ExcelAire Press Release:

The ExcelAire family welcomes home its pilots, Joseph Lepore and Jan Paladino, at their arrival by private jet at Long Island-MacArthur airport today. The pilots were detained in Brazil following the September 29, 2006 mid-air collision between a Gol Airlines Boeing 737 and an Embraer Legacy 600 jet.

"We are thrilled to have Joe and Jan back home after a long and difficult detainment in Brazil, and this homecoming is a very special day for all of us at ExcelAire," said Bob Sherry, ExcelAire’s President and CEO. "We have been working tirelessly since the accident to bring them home, and are glad that Joe and Jan can be home with their families for the holidays, where they belong."

"We would like to thank all those people here in the U.S., Brazil and around the world that have helped so much and provided so much support to Joe and Jan during this trying time," said Mr. Sherry.

"We’d also like to thank the aviation industry associations, politicians and labor unions that have been so dedicated to this cause, and to advocating for the fair treatment of the accident investigations in Brazil."

He added, "We continue to extend our sympathies and prayers to the families and friends that lost loved ones in this tragic accident."

The news was given later by the US consulate in São Paulo. All reporters were able to notice is that there was no flight scheduled to leave for the United States at the time they were told to have left. The Legacy they flew in doesn’t belong to air-taxi company ExcelAire, their American employer.

The Americans got their passports back, this afternoon, more than two months after they were confiscated by the Brazilian authorities following the collision of the Legacy executive jet they were piloting with the Boeing 737 over the Amazon jungle on September 29.

Before they were handed their documents, today, by the federal police they had to go through a six-hour interrogatory at São Paulo’s Federal Police headquarters.

As expected they were indicted under the Brazilian Penal Code’s article 261 charged with having exposed the Brazilian air traffic security to danger.

Barring any last-minute surprise both should fly back home to the United States before the end of the day.

According to one of the pilots lawyer the crime they are being charged with carries a 2 to 5 year jail sentence. The Federal Police decided that theirs was an involuntary crime meaning that they didn’t have the intention to cause the accident or the deaths of the 154 people aboard the Boeing 737.

Lepore and Paladino left the Marriott hotel, in Copacabana beach, in which they were confined since October 3 very early in the morning in order to fly to São Paulo.

They arrived at the São Paulo Federal Police at 7:45 am and half an hour later had already started their testimony. Their lawyers say the pilots didn’t say a word during the six-hour procedure.

According to the Federal Police, however, the two Americans answered the questions posed by Federal Police chiefs Ramon da Silva, from Mato Grosso state and Rubem Maleiner from Brazilian capital Brasí­lia.

The two American pilots came accompanied by four workers from the American consulate and by their two lawyers, former Justice Minister, José Carlos Dias, and Theo Dias.

While Paladino came dressed up, with a dark suit, his colleague Lepore was wearing a blue shirt with short sleeves.

According to the announcement made last night, December 7, Joe Lepore and Jan Paladino, the pilots from the Legacy executive jet that collided with a Boeing 737 resulting in the deaths of all 154 aboard, will testify, today, at 8 am, at the São Paulo Federal Police district headquarters.

It is expected that they will be indicted under the Brazilian Penal Code’s article 261 charged with exposing to danger Brazil’s air traffic security.

Since the collision resulted in the fall of the Boeing authorities are still unsure whether they will accuse them of involuntary manslaughter or the graver crime of culpable homicide.

All indicate that they will be charged with involuntary manslaughter, meaning that the Brazilian authorities believe that they didn’t hit the other plane or kill those aboard intentionally.

For whatever they are indicted if convicted they should get at least two years of jail time.

Ramon Almeida da Silva, the federal police chief who in is charge of the criminal inquiry on the Boeing crash, told reporters that he is worried about the security and the physical integrity of Lepore and Paladino.

That would explain why he changed so many times the place where the pilots are supposed to give their testimony. Silva and Rubens José Maleiner, another police chief in the case and both from the state of Mato Grosso, where the Boeing fell down, have been in São Paulo since yesterday.

All this indefiniteness about where to interview the Americans might also have been a result of a strategy conceived by the pilots lawyers. One version circulating in the Brazilian pressrooms yesterday was that they had agreed to bring their two clients as asked by the police as long as the media had no access to them.

On Thursday, the Prosecuting Office asked that the 1st Region’s Regional Federal Court temporarily  suspend the order to return the passports to the two pilots. The request was made by prosecutors Adriana Brocks and Elton Ghersel.

They want the court to allow them time in the coming days to decide if they appeal or not the decision to give the passports back to the pilots.

A last-minute about face could still happen today before 6 pm, Brazilian time, the deadline given by the Justice for the passports to be returned. Carlos Olavo, the Regional Federal Court’s vice-president, is the judge who will decide to grant or not this injunction. 

The Federal Police made it very clear that they wish to hear the pilots before they return to the United States and that they will not give the documents back before they interview the two of them.

Since October 3, Lepore and Paladino have been in virtual house arrest in a Marriott Hotel at Copacabana beach in Rio. Despite all the fun around they have been locked in their suite for more than two months.

Before they are handed their passports they will have to sign a paper in which they promise to go back to Brazil to take part in a criminal investigation if asked to do so.

Brazilian Defense Minister Waldir Pires is an honest, courageous politician, who owns an undefiled biography. This doesn’t let him off from the ascertainment that he conducted the probe on the causes that led to the collision between the Gol’s Boeing and the Legacy executive jet in, at least, a flippant way.

But we need to underline that he didn’t do this for his own benefit. His intention was to make the government look good. Or the ruling party. If these facts that are now starting to come to light had been revealed between the first and the second electoral rounds, the government would be severely scorched by the election.

Waldir Pires politicized the tragedy from the very beginning. And now he is paying for that. The pilots of the Legacy were Americans, ergo they were preliminarily guilty –  they were in the wrong altitude, they turned off the transponder,  they didn’t obey the rules.

Joe Sharkey, the New York Times’s journalist who was flying in the Legacy, wrote right in the first days that there were "blind spots" in the Amazon’s air space. Minister Waldir Pires mercilessly attacked him.

When informations surfaced on the emotional shock felt by the controllers who were in Brasília’s Tower when the tragedy happened, the minister denied them. With lies. When the controllers’ category decided to act and embarked in a work-to-rule campaign to call the society’s attention, the minister made light of it and declared that there were no flight delays, that everything was normal at the Brazilian airports. He lied again.

In the Senate, Minister Pires did an about face and admitted everything he had previously challenged. On Monday, December 4, after the Fantástico TV show’s  charges about the control equipment’s condition, the minister pulled a fast one, tricked and ended up declaring that he would order an investigation of the matter. Waldir Pires told more fibs in the last 60 days than Baron Munchausen in his entire life.

Tail Between the Legs

And most of  the media repeated the shameful performance it had in the Escola Base scandal (a notorious case in which the directors of a school were wrongly accused of sex abuse). It published official charges without investigating, it believed in frivolous rumors, it abdicated from its duty of watching over the government, it forgot its duty of searching for truth and helping justice.

We kept our eyes on the ball: we called attention for the similarity between this case and the Escola Base in our radio program on October 5, 2006. [The audio of the program can be heard here: http://observatorio.ultimosegundo.ig.com.br/blogs/audio/observatorionoradio5102006.mp3 and you can read a transcript here: http://observatorio.ultimosegundo.ig.com.br/artigos.asp?cod=401IMQ005].

Among those in  the big press, Folha de S. Paulo was the only discordant voice and in the big newspaper, the largest in Brazil, columnist Eliane Cantanhêde stood out. She was the one who started in her political column the dismantling of the pack of tall tales and then went on to write ravaging stories. Even so, the rest of the newspapers kept their impassive and sleepy demeanor. It had nothing to do with them.

Nine weeks after the air catastrophe, the magazine Época showed what weekly magazines are for –  completing the dailies job, investigating in depth. The interview with two Brasilia’s tower controllers although kept in total anonymity, knocked down the sand castle invented by the government.

If it weren’t for the Jornal Nacional of Saturday, December 2, and the Fantástico show the following day we might say that Globo Network kept its tail between its legs all along. It got scared by the antimedia guerrilla started by the government and carried on by government-approved media critics. And it reproduced without complaining, along 60 days, the Defense minister’s scatterbrained statements.

Fateful Day

These revelations on the disaster’s true causes were useful to unmask the media’s extra sharp neocritics, bloggers, bloggists or mere lynchers. Thrilled with the task of proving that the big media paid more attention to the Vedoin Dossier’s piles of money pictures than to the tragedy, they ended up forgetting the tragedy itself. 

They weren’t touched by the 154 deaths,  they weren’t touched by the families’ pain,  they didn’t get angry at the authorities neglect or at their lies to hide their carelessness. These people take seriously their mission to show that the powerful federal government is a defenseless victim of the press.

The September 29 tragedy-scandal was also useful to dismantle a simplification that so much pleases totalitarians: the Brazilian media, although dangerously concentrated,  is not homogeneous, it follows diverse ways and vocations.

Folha’s journalistic instinct is not the same as the one from O Estado de S. Paulo. The same can be said for Época, Veja, Isto É and Carta Capital. Media is not an entity, it is the designation for a collective. The Globo network took a long time to wake up, but the other networks, Band, Record and SBT are still sleeping.

We also have a fateful day in September: the American one is 9/11, our is 9/29. It is  still going to haunt many people.

Alberto Dines, the author, is a journalist, founder and researcher at LABJOR – Laboratório de Estudos Avançados em Jornalismo (Laboratory for Advanced Studies in Journalism) at UNICAMP (University of Campinas) and editor of the Observatório da Imprensa. You can reach him by email at obsimp@ig.com.br.

Translated from the Portuguese by Arlindo Silva.

In a unanimous decision, the Regional Federal Court of the First Region, in Brasí­lia, decided, today that there’s no reason for the Brazilian Justice to keep the Americans passports, which were confiscated in Rio, at the beginning of October.

The pilots have been in virtual house arrest in a hotel in Rio since. The judicial decision requires that the documents be returned to the US pilots in 72 hours.

Federal chief judge Fernando Tourinho, federal judge Jamil Oliveira and the reporter and president of the session, Cândido Ribeiro, voted for the habeas corpus concession.

The documents had been seized by determination of Mato Grosso state’s federal police’s while authorities investigated the causes of Brazil’s worst air accident ever.

The Regional Federal Court believes that 72 hours are more than enough time for the Federal Police to still interview the pilots if they so wish.

While the two pilots are free to leave Brazil they must agree to go back to the country for further inquiry and judicial action if they are asked to by the Brazilian authorities.