4 indicted men testify about plane crash

Four flight controllers indicted in connection with Brazil's deadliest air disaster testified Monday before a congressional commission, a day after two of them blamed the crash on equipment error.

The men spoke behind closed doors to a panel investigating the country's troubled air traffic control system as dozens of their colleagues demonstrated outside in support of their allegation that obsolete instruments caused last year's jetliner crash that killed all 154 aboard.

A federal judge on Friday indicted the four men, as well as the two New York pilots who were flying an Embraer Legacy 600 executive jet when it collided with a Boeing 737 operated by Gol airlines over the Amazon rainforest on Sept. 29.

One of the controllers, Jomarcelo Fernandes dos Santos, was charged with knowingly exposing an aircraft to danger, which is similar to manslaughter, and faces up to 36 years in prison. The others face charges equivalent to involuntary manslaughter, crimes punishable by one to three years in prison.

Santos told Globo TV's Fantastico program on Sunday night that the accident was a result of "faulty information" on equipment showing the Legacy's altitude level.

"We had information that the airplane was at level 360 (36,000 feet) when it was really at 370 (37,000 feet)," he said. "It was an automatic change made by the system."

Flight at 37,000 feet put the smaller plane on a collision course with the Boeing.

"It was a software error that shouldn't happen and had been reported. A danger report was filed well before this accident and nothing was done," Santos said.

Prosecutors say Santos should have been aware that the Legacy was traveling 37,000 feet and should have alerted the next controller on duty about the plane's true altitude and faulty transponder.

That controller, Lucivando Alencar, who took over a half hour before the accident, told Globo's Fantastico that he was unable to contact or locate the Legacy because it was flying in a region with spotty radar coverage.

The pilots of the Legacy jet owned by Ronkonkoma, N.Y.-based ExcelAire Service Inc., Joseph Lepore, 42, and Jan Paul Paladino, 34, were charged with negligently exposing an aircraft to danger.

Joel R. Weiss, a lawyer for the pilots, said the charges were unfounded and blamed the controllers.