Company Watch - Embraer.

Oct 9, 2006

Embraer is looking at ways to remarket its ERJ-145s as customers have gravitated to the 170/190 family. Currently, only two 145s have been returned. "The values have been holding up," said Regional Manager-Asset Management Luciano Flores. Oct 4, 2006

Aircraft manufacturer Embraer said one of its executive jets, a Legacy 600 owned and operated by a client, had been involved in a collision and made an emergency landing at Cachimbo air force base with five passengers on board. No injuries were reported. Oct 2, 2006

A Boeing 737-800 of low-cost airline Gol crashed on September 29 Brazil's air traffic control has said that the accident occurred after an executive jet piloted by two US citizens crossed paths with the passenger plane. The jet, which lost a winglet, made a safe emergency landing. On Saturday, a Brazilian court ordered that the new ExcelAire Embraer Legacy business jet be retained in Brazil while an investigation into the crash continues. Police last week confiscated the passports of the US pilot and co-pilot. Preliminary results of the crash probe are expected in coming days. Any pilot or controller found guilty in the crash could be jailed for up to five years, state security officials said. Brazil's chief air traffic controller, Brig. Lt. Roberto Vilarhino, said on Thursday that the executive jet was flying at the wrong altitude when it crossed paths with the Gol airliner. But he said that he could not yet blame anyone for the crash and did not rule out equipment failure. Vilarhino said that the Legacy's transponder, which gives details about an aircraft's location, was apparently not working. Some Brazilian officials have suggested that the pilots may have turned off the instrument. Oct 8, 2006

Air Force commander Luiz Carlos Bueno said on Monday both planes involved in the Gol fatal crash were flying at 37,000 feet, which means that one of them had strayed from its flight plan. Investigators want to know why modern collision avoidance equipment installed on both planes did not prevent the accident, local aviation authorities said. Brazilian news reports have offered a range of conflicting theories about the accident's cause, some speculating that the Embraer Legacy business jet may have deviated from its flight plan. Christine Negroni, with US law firm Kreindler & Kreindler which is not involved in the investigation, said all planes heading west in Brazil fly at even multiples of 1,000 feet, and those heading east at odd multiples. Oct 4, 2006

At the Gol crash site in a dense, remote area in the Brazilian rain forest, salvage crews had recovered the remains of about 50 victims by Tuesday, including the airliner's two pilots. A badly damaged black box from the Boeing will probably be taken for analysis to the United States or Canada, after which it will be compared with the data from the business jet, aviation authorities said. As it often does, the US National Transportation Safety Board sent investigators to help with the probe in Brazil. Grieving relatives were asked to provide dental records or descriptions that could help identify the bodies, as well as blood samples for DNA tests. Oct 4, 2006

Bodies Found At Brazilian Plane Crash Site. Searchers found dozens of bodies at the Amazon site of Brazil's worst plane disaster on Tuesday and started to fly remains to the capital as investigators tried to determine how two planes collided. An air force spokesman said coroners and rescue workers were trying to separate human remains, but could not say how many corpses had been found. All 155 people on board the Boeing 737-800, owned by budget airline Gol, died in Friday's crash. The first remains found on Sunday were being sent to Brasilia today, he said. Earlier, aviation officials said more than 100 bodies had been found, but the air force, which is in charge of the search, could not confirm the number. Meanwhile, two US pilots of a smaller Legacy executive jet that authorities believe clipped the Boeing arrived in Rio de Janeiro from the Amazon for medical and psychological tests at the Aerospace Medical Center as part of the investigation. They cannot leave Brazil while the probe is on. The ExcelAire Embraer Legacy 600 jet, landed at a military base in the jungle at Cachimbo, after losing a winglet in a collision. None of the seven people on board were hurt. Oct 3, 2006

Brazilian Crash Victim Relatives Journey To Site. Grieving relatives of 155 people killed in Brazil's worst aviation disaster arrived in the Amazon on Monday to fly over the wreckage as searchers tried to recover corpses in the dense jungle. The relatives had earlier complained that authorities kept them in the dark about the search for bodies and the investigation into Friday's crash of a brand-new Boeing 737-800 belonging to Brazil's budget airline Gol. All 149 passengers and six crew died in the crash after the plane and a smaller executive jet appear to have clipped wings in mid-air. The Brazilian Air Force reported that rescue teams recovered the black box flight recorder of the Gol plane. The air force flew a group of six victims' relatives to the crash site in northern Mato Grosso state, about 1,000 km northwest of Brasilia. An air force spokesman said the idea was to show to them how difficult it was for rescue workers to reach the plane, which plunged nose first into the rain forest and disintegrated. Only two bodies were recovered by Sunday. The disaster site was found on Saturday and rescuers had to rappel down from helicopters while others hacked through thick jungle guided by local Indians to reach the wreckage. The smaller executive jet involved in the incident made an emergency landing at the Cachimbo air force base on Friday with five passengers on board, none of whom was hurt. The Gol plane had departed from Manaus, a river port, tourist center and manufacturing zone in the heart of the Amazon, bound for Brasilia with a final destination of Rio de Janeiro. The previous worst air disaster in Brazilian history was the June 1982 crash of a Vasp flight which hit a mountain near Fortaleza in northeastern Brazil, killing 137 people. Oct 3, 2006

Gol said the flight that crashed had 155 passengers on board but made no mention of crew members. Brazil's civil aviation authority said the plane was transporting 155 people and lost contact around the town of Sao Felix do Xingu. At Brasilia airport, dozens of friends and relatives, many weeping, gathered anxiously to await news. Gol is a low-cost carrier that has expanded rapidly in recent years to become Brazil's number two airline and to offer flights to neighboring countries. With its orange and white colors and stylized casual uniforms, it is an instantly recognizable brand in Brazil and one of its most successful new businesses. Manaus is host to a number of foreign-owned manufacturing plants making motorcycles, computers and other goods in its duty free zone. It is also a base for tourism in the Amazon, the world's largest rain forest, and a headquarters for several environmental groups. CBN radio said at least 20 passengers were employees of Yamaha, the Japanese conglomerate. The flight left Manaus at 2:36 p.m. local time (1836 GMT) but did not arrive in Brasilia at 6:12 p.m. (2112 GMT) as scheduled, a spokesman for Manaus Airport said. This is the first major crash involving Gol, which was founded in 2001. In the last major airline crash in Brazil, 33 people were killed when a plane belonging to regional carrier Rico Linhas Aereas crashed in the Amazon flying from Sao Paulo de Olivenca to Manaus on May 14, 2004. Oct 2, 2006

No Sign Of Life At Brazilian Jet Crash Site. Military searchers on Saturday were at the site of the wreckage of a Brazilian passenger plane that crashed a day earlier in remote Amazon jungle with 155 people on board. President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said there was no sign of survivors. The new Boeing 737-800 operated by Brazilian low-cost carrier Gol probably crushed into the ground nose first after it clipped a smaller executive jet, the head of Brazil's airport authority Infraero said. If the death toll is confirmed, it will be the worst aviation accident in Brazil's history. Brazil's military suspended the search and rescue mission as dusk set in the thick forested area and will resume Sunday morning. Earlier in the day, the two soldiers who rappelled from a helicopter into the area were cutting down dense jungle to make a helicopter landing area and authorities had recruited Indian trackers to find a path to the remote jungle crash site for relief teams. The small size of the wreckage area indicated that the chances of survivors among the 149 passengers and six crew members on board were slim. Oct 2, 2006

Brazil Seizes Passports Of US Pilots Tied To Crash. Brazilian authorities confiscated the passports of two American pilots on Tuesday who were flying a business jet that apparently collided with a Gol commercial airliner that crashed last week deep in the Amazon jungle, killing all 155 people on board. Judge Tiago de Abril in Mato Grosso state, where the plane went down, said police had seized the passports of Joe Lepore and Jan Paladino on his orders for the duration of the investigation. The two pilots, who were flying a newly built executive jet that authorities believe clipped the Boeing 737-800 in midair, arrived on Tuesday in Rio de Janeiro for medical and psychological tests as part of the investigation. They face more questioning on Wednesday. Oct 4, 2006

The business jet involved in the Gol fatal crash, an Embraer Legacy 600 made by Brazilian manufacturer Embraer, was recently purchased by ExcelAire Service, a charter company based in Ronkonkoma, New York. The pilots were flying it to the United States when it apparently hit the airliner flown by low-cost Brazilian carrier Gol Linhas Aereas Inteligentes. The business jet was able to land safely at a military base in the jungle. None of the seven people on board were hurt. Oct 4, 2006

The executive jet involved in the Gol crash, a Legacy 600 made by Embraer and owned by Excel Airways, made an emergency landing at Cachimbo air force base on Friday with five passengers on board, none of whom was hurt. Its black box was being examined at Embraer's headquarters at Sao Jose dos Campos in Sao Paulo state. The Gol plane's black box has not yet been found. Oct 2, 2006

Northwest Airlines said the new Bombardier and Embraer planes it purchased will lower its operating costs over aircraft they will replace such as the Avro Regional Jet 85 through lower fuel consumption and maintenance costs. Compass Airlines, Northwest's regional subsidiary, will operate the new Embraer aircraft as Northwest Airlink, and an Airlink partner yet to be determined will operate the Bombardier planes. Oct 5, 2006

Editor: Aram Gesar, eMail: [e-mail]

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Oct 2, 2006