A Brazilian judge has sentenced 2 US Pilots in absentia to 4 years and 4 months for their role in the fatal crash of GOL LINHAS AEREAS Flight 1907 over the Amazon in 2006. Joseph Lepore and Jan Paul Paladino had not checked that equipment transmitting their position and altitude was working, Judge Murilo Mendes ruled. But he commuted their sentences to community service in the US. On September 29, 2006, the Pilots' Embraer Legacy 600 and the GOL Boeing 737, which was enroute from Manaus to Rio de Janeiro, collided over the Amazon, near Peixoto de Azevedo, Brazil. The GOL airliner plunged to the ground, killing all 154 passengers and crew onboard. The Legacy, which suffered minor damage in the collision, made a safe emergency landing. None of the 7 people onboard were injured. It was one of the worst crashes in Brazilian aviation history. Judge Mendes said that the Legacy Pilots had been negligent in failing to check that their plane's transponder was working and giving accurate information about their speed, height and position. "They were passengers for an hour," the judge said. "An hour in aviation time is an eternity". After passing sentence, the Judge commuted the term to community service, ruling that the defendants had not committed further crimes and there was no indication of other failings in their long careers as Pilots. "The punishment is very mild. We are disappointed," said a spokeswoman from a group representing the families and friends of those who died onboard Flight 1907. A Report by the US NTSB concluded that the probable cause of the crash was that Brazilian air traffic controllers had put the planes on a collision course as a result of a number of "individual and institutional errors". In their own Report, Brazilian authorities concluded that there were errors committed by air traffic control and by the Pilots.
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