I hope that we never, EVER have a similar incident in US soil, but try to imagine a scenario where two pilots get involved in a midair collision that resulted in a crash of a midsize airliner and the initial ATC readout is that they were in the wrong altitude for that segment (assigned or not) or that the ATC readout was showing an erratic climb/descend pattern (caused by mode C inadvertently being switched off), If you think that they would not be detained by the authorities after they landed here in the U.S of A. you are being very naive. The fallout here in the US would be a complete circus fueled by speculation and media hype and like I said, I hope that we never find out.

In my opinion the investigation was handled with an open mind by the Brazilian lead investigator and at the end he came up with a very sobering and impartial judgement of the causes of this tragedy.

Anyway, sorry for the thread drift