What: American Eagle flight 3505 Embraer 145 regional jet enroute from Dallas to Killeen.
Where: Killeen
When: Monday afternoon –aircraft landed safely at 12:30 p.m
Who: 50 people aboard
Why: pilots reported smoke in the cockpit. The plane landed safely and there were no injuries.
Brazil released a report Wednesday regarding the GOL crash. Specifically, the report concerns the Gol jet that collided over the Amazon rain forest with an Embraer Legacy 600 executive jet owned by ExcelAire Service Inc. of New York ; it concludes that the pilots of a New York-based executive jet had placed the transponder and collision avoidance system on standby before colliding with the Boeing 737 operated by GOL Linhaus Aereas Inteligentes SA on Sept. 29, 2006.
However, the two American pilots are not exclusively responsible. The NTSB opinion is that the rules and regulations that govern Brazilian air space, as well as the on duty air Brazilian traffic controllers are at fault. Brazilian air traffic controllers should have informed the Long Island pilots that their transponder was turned off. There’s no indication that the Legacy’s control panel indicated that the transponder was off.
The Legacy landed safely but everyone on the GOL jet died. Flight controllers failed to alert pilots that they were on a collision course and also did not notice–or communicate that the transponder was off.
The on duty flight controllers and the two U.S. pilots – Joseph Lepore and Jan Paladino have been indicted. They could get up to three years in prison.The pilots deny turning off the transponder. They claim to have been flying at the altitude designated by the air controllers. Their lawyer is quoted as saying “This accident was caused by a string of catastrophic errors committed by Brazilian air traffic controllers. In essence, they put and kept these two planes on a collision course.â€
ExcelAire says that “the transponder issue is a distraction from the true cause of the accident, which is an air traffic control system that put two airplanes on a collision course for about an hour.”
Families of the GOL victims may yet file a civil lawsuit in Brazil.
Regarding the Gol jet that collided over the Amazon rain forest with an Embraer Legacy 600 executive jet owned by ExcelAire Service Inc. of New York: The GOL InvestigatIon has determined that the pilots of a New York-based executive jet had placed the transponder and collision avoidance system on standby before colliding with the Boeing 737 operated by GOL Linhaus Aereas Inteligentes SA on Sept. 29, 2006.
The Legacy landed safely but everyone on the GOL jet died.
Flight controllers failed to alert pilots that they were on a collision course and also did not notice the transponder was off.
The on duty flight controllers and the two U.S. pilots – Joseph Lepore and Jan Paladino have been indicted. They could get up to three years in prison.The pilots deny turning off the transponder. They claim to have been flying at the altitude designated by the air controllers.
ExcelAire says that “the transponder issue is a distraction from the true cause of the accident, which is an air traffic control system that put two airplanes on a collision course for about an hour.”
What: Sky West Flight 6552 Embraer en route from Palm Springs International Airport to Los Angeles International Airport
Where: Palm Springs International Airport
When: 5:46 p.m
Who: 14 people on board
Why: After the crew detected smoke in the cockpit right after takeoff, the Sky West flight was able to land safely.
