Legal

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    Tam Air Suit Filed

    RIO DE JANEIRO (AP)–Relatives of victims of Brazil’s Tam Air CRASH filed suit in Miami seeking damages in 59 wrongful death complaints. Plaintiffs are seeking a jury trial for pain and suffering, lost value of life, funeral expenses and other damages. The TAM Airlines Flight 3054 crash killed 199 people. Masry and Vititoe’s partner Podhurst Orseck filed the first case ten days after the accident occurred.

    Charged are TAM S.A. (TAM), its pilots and maintenance personnel, France-based Airbus; Goodrich Corp. ( GR) of Charlotte, North Carolina; International Aero Engines AG of East Hartford, Connecticut; and Pegasus Aviation IV Inc. of Delaware. The thrust reverser slows the jet down when it lands. Without a working right thrust reverser, it didn’t have enough room to stop on the runway, he said.

    Atty Steven C. Marks said.”Responsibility not only lies with the companies that manufactured and handled maintenance for the aircraft,” and that the flight crew knew there were problems with the aircraft before the disaster because the plane’s right thrust reverser had been deactivated before the flight.

    Brazil’s largest airline, was trying to reach agreements with families of victims and did not have an immediate comment.

    src: Dow Jones Newswires; South Florida Lawyers blog

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    Five Manslaughter Convictions in Air Crash

    In October 2001, in thick fog, a Copenhagen-bound SAS airliner ploughed into a Cessna business jet as the airliner was taking off resulting in the deaths of 118 people in 2001 in Italy’s worst air disaster. Italy’s top tribunal, The Cassation Court, acquitted two senior airport officials who stood trial for the Milan’s Linate airport crash. The SAS plane slammed into a baggage hangar and burst into flames. All on board both planes died, plus four people in the hangar.

    Paolo Pettinaroli, spokesperson of an association of relatives of the victims, said he was “happy with the confirmation of the convictions, but I did not expect that they would acquit those responsible for the airports’ security…It was shameful then, and it is still today.”

    Following the disaster, the airfield was found to have safety shortcomings, and lacked a functioning ground radar system. The July 2006 Milan appeals court findings of multiple manslaughter as well as negligent disaster were upheld. Investigations verified that runway signs were confusing; the control tower failed to ask the business plane’s pilot to read back his instructions, ground radar was out of operation and safety procedures were poorly followed.

    Details of the accident
    In the fog, the private Cessna invaded the runway of SAS flight 686 which committed to take off. The collision at 270.5 km/h crashed the Cessna, instantly killing the four passengers. The MD-87 lost the right engine and debris from the Cessna weakened the left engine. Commander Joakim Gustafsson could not end the takeoff phase so he was forced to carry out a perfect textbook emergency landing. However the MD-87 crashed into the baggage hanger at around 260 km/h, bursting into flames, killing 110 passengers and four workers in the building. The only survivor was Pasquale Padovano, an employee of SEA, Milan’s airport management company. Italians, Swedes, Danes, Finns, Norwegians, a Romanian, a Briton, a South African and an American were killed.

    Upheld was:

    • a 6 year prison sentence for former head of air traffic control authority ENAV, Sandro Gualano. He received the longest prison term.
    • a 3 year sentence for Paolo Zacchetti, air traffic controller
    • a four-year, four-month sentence for Fabio Marzocca’s Former ENAV director general
    • a 3 year 3 month sentence for Lorenzo Grecchi, former official with the SEA airports agency,
    • a 3 year 3 month sentence for Antonio Cavanna, former official with the SEA airports agency

    Angelo Di Popolo, deputy prosecutor of the Cassation, requested cancellation of the acquittals for the ex-director of Linate airport Vincenzo Fusco (current ENAC director in the airport of Alghero-Fertilia), and the ex-director of the Milan airports, Francesco Federico (now ENAC director of the “Sandro Pertini” airport of Turin).

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    Convictions Stand in Milan Airport Crash

    Convictions Stand in Milan Airport Crash
    4 hours ago

    ROME (AP) — Italy’s top criminal court on Wednesday upheld prison sentences for five aviation officials convicted in a 2001 runway collision of two aircraft that killed 118 people, Italian news agencies reported.
    The Court of Cassation upheld the convictions of manslaughter and negligence and confirmed sentences ranging from three to 6 1/2 years in jail, the ANSA and Apcom news agencies reported.

    The longest prison term belongs to Sandro Gualano, who stepped down as chief executive of Italy’s air traffic agency ENAV after the Oct. 8, 2001, crash between an Scandinavian Airlines System airliner and a corporate jet at Milan’s Linate airport, the agencies said.

    The crash happened on a foggy morning when the SAS MD-87, bound for Copenhagen, rolled down the tarmac for takeoff. The jetliner collided with a business plane with four people on board then careened into a baggage hangar, killing four ground workers and 110 people on the jetliner.

    Investigators have described the accident as avoidable, caused by a combination of human error and poorly followed safety procedures. The ground radar was out of operation.

    Investigators cited confusing runway signs, and the control tower failed to ask the smaller plane’s pilot to read back his instructions, authorities said.

    Wednesday’s ruling upheld the sentence of former ENAV director general Fabio Marzocca to four years and four months in jail. Three-year terms were also confirmed for Paolo Zacchetti — the controller on duty during the crash — and two other airport officials, ANSA reported.
    Copyright © 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

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    Brazil Compensation

    Defense Minister Nelson Jobim announced Brazilian airlines will have to compensate customers for excessive delays of more than five hours.

    During the past 14 months after two fatal plane crashes, the Brazilian government limited flights at certain airports and allowed air-traffic controllers to reduce the number of flights they monitor.

    Brazil’s federal government is in charge of managing and operating the country’s ailing aviation industry, which has been struggling since the GOL and TAM crashes.

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    Gol Goes On and On

    According to Brazil’s Defense Minister Nelson Jobim, critics are “playing politics” when they disparage the state of Brazil’s aviation industry, in which occured in the past year, the crash of a Gol jetliner over the Amazon in which 154 people died, and July’s disaster when an Airbus crashed into a warehouse in Sao Paulo killing 199 people.

    Nevertheless, during a seminar in the United States, the President of the International Federation of Air Traffic Controllers, Marc Baumgartner criticized the Brazilian Air Force which oversees Brazil’s air traffic control system for trying to punish the controllers. “The Brazilian Air Force invested lots of energy to arrest and prosecute its own workers but none to fix its (air traffic control) system.” He also said that “it’s a question of time before a new air accident happens again in Brazil.”

    So far, a military court has declined to indict five Brazilian air traffic controllers for the GOL crash. Two American pilots face charges in a civilian criminal court in connection with the same crash. A Congressional commission report supports the indictment of pilots Joseph Lepore and Jan Paladino.

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    1.5 Million paid

    On July 18, all 186 people aboard the ill-fated Brazilian TAM flight 3054 died in a fiery crash in Sao Paulo. Thirteen people on the ground also were killed. The Airbus 320 careened off the notoriously short runway upon landing at Sao Paulo’s Cagonhas airport, skidded across a crowded avenue and slammed into a warehouse where it burst into flames.

    Though TAM announced Saturday it has paid nearly 1.5 million dollars in indemnities to families of victims, as of Thursday, only one case has settled.

    Ninety-nine victim’s relatives were indemnified, at 30,000 reales per victim, for a total of nearly three million reales.

    Food and lodging expenses for families who traveled to the Sao Paulo airport in the days after th crash of flight 3054, as well as psychological treatment and funeral costs were also defrayed by the airline.

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    Brazil Seizes Flight Control Data

    According to the Tam Airlines transcript, the pilots panicked, crying “Oh my God!, Oh my God!” as they tried to slow down the jetliner which landed with inoperable spoilers and a thrust reverser.

    “Come on! Come on! Turn, turn, turn, turn!” cried the co-pilot moments before a final utterance, “Oh no!,” was heard. The tape goes blank as the jetliner slammed into a cargo building at 137 mph and exploded.

    In the wake of the airliner crash in Sao Paulo last month, Brazil’s top prosecutor Matheus Baraldi Magnan, seized records from key flight control centers in response to concern over Brazil’s civil aviation system.

    Explaining the surprise data impoundment, Magnani said the military hindered his seizure, and “holds on to the information. It is not possible today to know the extent and frequency of problems. Only with that information will it be possible to evaluate and improve the system…The goal is to assure seizure of the incident records, and any information about problems in the air traffic control system, which will allow us to assess the risks passengers and crew face aboard aircraft.”

    The government confirmed that France and aircraft builder Airbus filed a complaint over leaks of the Tam airlines flight’s black box.

    The French bureau’s response on August third was that “All sorts of information, correct or incorrect, is circulating, along with speculation and attempts at explanations.”

    “It is a serious error to try to draw conclusions on the basis of incomplete and unanalyzed information.”

    A transcript of the cockpit voice recorder was released last week by a congressional committee investigating the accident on.
    July 17 when the TAM Airbus 320 carrying 187 people overran the runway while landing at Sao Paulo’s Congonhas airport, crossed a road and slammed into an airport building.

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    Tam Air Crash Lawsuit

    A complaint filed by his family on behalf of Ricardo Tazoe, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, also names European jet manufacturer Airbus, the Goodrich Corp, and International Aero Engines (IAE) as defendants. The Miami resident died in an Airbus crash in Sao Paulo.

    198 other people who were killed when the Tam Airbus A320 skidded off a rainy runway at Sao Paulo’s Congonhas Airport.

    TAM is charged with negligence. The plane should have been grounded because one of its thrust reversers was not working. Defendants include Goodrich, the manufacturer of the aircraft’s braking system and IAE, which assembled the plane’s engine.

    “From the evidence gathered so far, it’s clear that TAM knew there were problems with the aircraft,” Steven C. Marks, an attorney at Miami law firm Podhurst Orseck, said in the statement. “Had (the thrust reverser) been operational, it may have prevented this accident.”

    The lawsuit seeks unspecified financial damages.

    IAE is United Technologies Corp. Pratt & Whitney, Britain’s Rolls-Royce Plc, Japan’s Aero Engines Corp. and Germany’s MTU Aero Engones.

    The firm that filed the suit is also representing several families in a suit concerning an earlier crash in the Amazon this year.

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    AeroPeru Crashes in Pacific


    Click to view full size photo at Airliners.net
    Contact photographer JetPix

    What: Aeroperú Boeing 757-23A en route from Lima, Peru to Santiago Chile.
    Where: 73 km (45.6 mls) NW off Lima, Peru in the Pacific Ocean
    When: October 2, 1996
    Who: 9 crew members, 61 passengers died
    Why: On October 2, 1996, Aeroperú Boeing 757 en route from Jorge Chávez International Airport in Lima, Peru (LIM), to Comodoro Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport in Santiago, Chile, crashed on October 2, 1996. Shortly after takeoff the crew discovered that their instrumentation was behaving erratically. They were receiving contradictory serial emergency messages from the onboard computer, such as rudder ratio, mach speed trim, overspeed, underspeed and flying too low. The crew declared an emergency and requested an immediate return to the airport. they experienced multiple stalls resulting in rapid loss of altitude with no corresponding altimeter changes. While the altimeter indicated an altitude of approximately 9,700 feet, but the aircraft’s true altitude was much closer to the water.

    The air traffic controller sent a Boeing 707 to help guide the 757 to land, but before the 707 reached them, the 757’s wingtip struck the water approximately twenty-five minutes after emergency declaration. The pilots realized the true altitude of the airliner, struggled and was briefly airborne again for twenty seconds, but then crashed inverted into the water. All nine crew members and sixty-one passengers died.

    In Peru, Eleuterio Chacaliaza was sentenced to negligent homicide for a piece of masking tape accidentally left over the static ports (on the bottom side of the fuselage) after cleaning the aircraft.
    Those aboard:
    1.- José Luis Bovadilla Fernández (México)
    2.- Jaime Brito Guzmán (Chile)
    3.- Abraham Broidman (México)
    4.- Mario Cayetano Bramont (Perú)
    5.- Eugenio Campos (México)
    6.- María Carrasco Flórez Aráoz (Chile)
    7.- Guillermo Serveto (Gran Bretaña)
    8.- Manuel Chang Ching (Perú)
    9.- Fabio Chaparro Beltrán (Colombia)
    10.- Víctor Choe Gallardo (Perú)
    11.- Javier Cuéllar Cantú (Perú)
    12.- Barbara Delano (Chile)
    13.- James Degeren (Chile)
    14.- Miguel Degeren (Chile)
    15.- Juan Huerdo (México)
    16.- Galen Canusev (Estados Unidos)
    17.- Nis Linden (Estados Unidos).
    18.- Dani Manzur (Chile)
    19.- Patricio Marambio (Chile)
    20.- Luis Morán Morante (Perú)
    21.- Raúl Peña Rojas (Chile)
    22.- Guillermo Quiroz (Perú)
    23.- Juan Alvarado Allende (Chile), deportado a su país por poseer documentación falsa bajo el nombre de Gerardo Sánchez, de Venezuela
    24.- Eduardo Smith Inope (Perú)
    25.- Denis Trial (Estados Unidos)
    26.- Kelen Vaisman (Estados Unidos)
    27.- Janet Vallejos Robinson (Perú)
    28.- Luis Vergara Bernales (Perú)
    29.- Pedro Villena Hidalgo (Perú)
    30.- Genaro Mar (México). Personas que se embarcaron en Quito:
    1.- Renato Cisotto (Italia)
    2.- Hernán Barriga Guzmán (Chile)
    3.- Isidro Huarache (Perú)
    4.- Juan Hurache (Perú)
    5.- Mario Jiménez Borja (Ecuador)
    6.- Arístides Noboa (Ecuador)
    7.- Mark Bram (Gran Bretaña)
    8.- Lan Lock (Nueva Zelandia)
    9.- Rodrigo Fernández Ruiz (España)
    10.- Tiziana Tamaro (Italia).
    Personas en tránsito de Miami a Santiago (todos chilenos)
    1.- Juan Awad
    2.- Mario Awad
    3.- Carolina Acevedo
    4.- Carmen Arancibia
    5.- Daniel Boleli
    6.- Sara Díaz
    7.- Jaime Duque del Río
    8.- Emir Agana
    9.- Ricardo Alex
    10.- Martín Sadued
    11.- María Eterpuer
    12.- Luis Medina
    13.- Eduardo Román
    14.- Elena Saavedra
    15.- María Saavedra
    16.- Carlos Serán
    17.- Alfonso Uldurraga
    18.- Carmen Concha
    19.- Ana Concha
    20.- Jimena Paya
    21.- Martha Contreras.
    Tripulación:
    1.- Capitán Erick Shereiber, piloto.
    2.- David Fernández, copiloto.
    3.- María Angela Casabo
    4.- Carolina López
    5.- Roxana Mino
    6.- Ana Contreras
    7.- Gema Brussone
    8.- Silvia Barreto
    9.- Nancy Fernández.