U.S. Pilots Indicted in Brazil Jet Crash

The American pilots were delivering to the United States a newly built Legacy 600 executive jet, manufactured by Embraer near Sao Paulo, when their aircraft collided over the Brazilian rainforest with a Boeing 737-800 operated by the Brazilian airline Gol. The Legacy 600 survived the collision, but the larger 737 did not. Credit: Embraer

Judge Murilo Mendes accepted the charges filed by a prosecutor last week in a federal court in Sinop, a small city near the Amazon jungle site where a Boeing jetliner plunged into the rain forest after a collision with an executive jet last year, spokesman Fabio Paz said by telephone.

"Now the criminal process begins," the official said.

The American pilots have been called on to give preliminary depositions on August 27 and the flight controllers have been called to testify a day later, said Paz.

Prosecutors last week asked the judge to indict pilots Joseph Lepore, 42, of Bay Shore, N.Y., and Jan Paladino, 34, of Westhampton Beach, N.Y., with exposing an aircraft to danger resulting in death. The charge is similar to involuntary manslaughter and is punishable by one to three years in prison, Paz said.

A lawyer for the pilots said the charges were unfounded.

"The pilots' conduct was completely competent throughout the flight and cannot be fairly characterized as criminal," said Joel R. Weiss. "The allegations against the pilots are inaccurate, and the pilots are innocent."

The men were allowed to return to the Long Island, N.Y., communities late last year after signing a document promising to return to Brazil for their trial or when required by local authorities.

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