Here's an expanded article. Still trying to determine if the reports that they have been allowed to return to the US are true.
This is 100% proof positive evidence that Brazil is no better than a THIRD WORLD COUNTRY, and I challenge Robert (or any other person) to disprove that statement. Even if the same charges brought against BRAZILIAN CITIZENS (which they never will be), it still wouldn't change my opinion of the circus down there.
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Two U.S. pilots charged over Brazil plane crash By Todd Benson
54 minutes ago
SAO PAULO, Brazil (Reuters) - Brazilian police on Friday charged two U.S. pilots with endangering air safety in the crash of a Brazilian airliner over the Amazon rain forest in which all 154 people on board were killed.
Joseph Lepore, 42, and Jan Paladino, 34, both of New York state, were at the controls of a small executive jet which clipped wings with the Boeing 737 operated by Brazilian airline Gol Linhas Aereas Inteligentes as they flew between Brasilia and Manaus on Sep. 29.
The Legacy executive jet, owned by ExcelAire, an aircraft charter company based in Ronkonkoma, New York, landed safely but the Boeing plunged to the ground, killing all 154 people aboard. It was Brazil's worst ever air disaster.
The two pilots had been prevented from leaving Brazil since the crash. They were charged when they appeared at a federal police headquarters in Sao Paulo on Friday to make a statement, a police spokesman said. The charges carry a maximum sentence of four years imprisonment, he added.
The pilots have denied any responsibility for the crash.
Despite the charge, local media said the pilots were expected to be allowed to return home to the United States on Friday after their enforced stay at a Rio de Janeiro hotel following the confiscation of their passports.
Their plight caused a wave of protest from U.S. pilots' associations, who urged Brazilian authorities to conduct the investigation under widely accepted international guidelines for civil aviation and not as a criminal probe.
While officials and the Brazilian media were quick to accuse the U.S. pilots in the first few weeks after the crash, media attention has recently shifted toward air traffic controllers, who complain of an excessive workload, low pay and blind spots in radar coverage.
Investigators still have to find out why collision avoidance equipment did not work and why the two planes were flying toward each other at the same altitude of 37,000 feet .