New York Times Reporter Safe On Smaller Plane
Two different air
controllers, one working a Brazilian Gol Airlines 737-800, the
other handling an Embraer Legacy 600, evidently assigned both
aircraft to the same altitude... possibly leading to what appears
to be a fatal midair collision last week.
There were conflicting reports in the Brazilian media that while
the Gol aircraft was cruising at 37,000 feet, that the Embraer may
have been cleared to climb from FL350 to FL390, crossing the path
of the airliner.
As ANN reported, the two
aircraft collided Friday -- but the smaller twin-engine Embraer was
able to make an emergency landing at the nearby Para military
airfield. The larger 737 plummeted in a near vertical dive into the
Amazon with the loss of 155 lives.
The Brazilian news agency O Globo reported an anonymous
Brazilian controller admitted that the two planes were being
controlled from two separate towers in the state of Para in the
Amazon. Evidently, the two controllers did not communicate and both
assigned the aircraft to fly at the same height.
The airspace is believed to have spotty radar coverage,
according to experts quoted in the Associated Press.
Both aircraft were equipped with the latest TCAS (Traffic
Collision Avoidance System) equipment and it is reported that the
pilot of the Embraer claimed that he heard no alarm from the TCAS
before the collision.
A business reporter for the New York Times, Joe Sharkey, was on
assignment reporting on the Brazilian aircraft industry. He was
aboard the Embraer and recounted in the Times, "Without warning, I
felt a terrific jolt and heard a loud bang, followed by an eerie
silence, save for the hum of engines."
Sharkey continued, "I was lucky to be alive -- and only later
would I learn that the 155 people aboard the Boeing 737 on a
domestic flight that seems to have clipped us were not...
investigators are still trying to sort out what happened, and how
our smaller jet managed to stay aloft while a 737 that is longer,
wider and more than three times as heavy, fell from the sky nose
first."
The Embraer suffered severe damage to the leading edge of the
wing which had started to peel back, and also damage to the
tail.
Cockpit and data recorders have been recovered from the wreckage
and the American NTSB has been invited to investigate. The Seattle
Post-Intelligencer reported that this was the first crash involving
the latest model Boeing 737-800 (file photo of type, above).