Let me enlighten you sir. After having spent a career in law enforcement, I can tell you that unless there is probable cause that supports that a criminal act has been committed, in the USA, you cannot "hold" someone. If a similar event had been in the US, it would have been investigated as an accident, not a criminal act unless there was clear evidence that it was an intentional action. Therefore, as per our constitution, within a reasonable time, i.e. hours, not days one cannot be, as you put it "held" without cause. There is a HUGE difference and a line between and investigative detention and an arrest. Detentions do not last for days. You might condiser looking up the more complete definition of reasonable suspicion, probable cause, investigative detention, and arrest. That would help clear up your apparent misunderstanding of what it takes here in the US to "hold" someone. I hope that this clears up any confusion on the part of any other readers on this forum.
Originally Posted by
The Dominican
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