Rio de Janeiro, Brazil – The two American pilots involved in Brazil’s deadliest air crash said they were flying at their authorized altitude when their executive jet collided with a Brazilian airliner, according to the men’s attorney.
Robert Torricella Jr. said Brazilian air traffic controllers cleared the pilots, Joseph Lepore and Jan Paladino, to fly at 37,000 feet on Sept. 29 from the southeastern Brazilian city of Sao Jose dos Campos to the Amazonian city of Manaus.
The crash killed 154 people after the executive jet sliced through the right wing and tail of a Boeing 737 flying in the opposite direction, sending it plunging into the jungle below.
Brazilian officials have accused the New York-based pilots of diverting from their original flight plan, which required them to descend from 37,000 feet to 36,000 feet at the capital, Brasilia, and then climb to 38,000 feet about 180 miles southeast from where the collision occurred.
Torricella said the air traffic controllers’ clearance nullified the flight plan. U.S. air experts also said air-traffic clearance trumps flight plans.
