Pilots from Amazon collision stuck in emotional, legal limbo

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil — Two American pilots involved in Brazil's worst air disaster have been virtual prisoners since the crash, isolating themselves in their hotel rooms just steps from Copacabana beach, their lawyer said Friday.

The two men face possible criminal charges in the accident and remain in the odd emotional limbo reserved for the few people lucky enough to have a collision in the sky and live to talk about it.

Not that they talk much — Joseph Lepore, 42, of Bay Shore, N.Y., and Jan Paladino, 34, of Westhampton Beach, N.Y., have tried to avoid discussing their feelings about the Sept. 29 collision, their lawyer said Friday.

The accident killed all 154 people on board Gol Airlines Flight 1907 when the jet crashed into the Amazon rainforest. Despite damage to the wing and tail of a smaller jet the Americans were piloting, they managed to land safely, and all seven on board survived.

"The one and only time where there was even a hint toward an emotional direction is when one of the guys said 'why did God pick seven and not 154?' " said attorney Robert Torricella, who has holed up with the pilots in a hotel suite for more than a month.

Lepore and Paladino — employees of ExcelAire Service of Ronkonkoma, N.Y. — had been flying the new Embraer Legacy 600 executive jet back to New York when it collided with the Brazilian passenger jet.

Early speculation in Brazil pointed to errors by the U.S. pilots, but the Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper reported last week that air-traffic controllers were recorded putting them on a collision course with the bigger jet, according to a leaked flight-recorder transcript.

Brazil's Defense Minister Waldir Pires earlier labeled "irresponsible" the pilots' statements to investigators that they had been flying at the correct altitude.

Brazilians speculated in the media that the pilots had ignored their flight plan and even switched off the new jet's transponder to avoid being tracked as they tested its performance — allegations denied by the pilots.

Now, the inquiry into the accident has stalled.

The Brazilian Air Force, citing international conventions, has not turned over control tower transcripts to federal police, nor let criminal investigators interview the 10 air-traffic controllers working that day. All 10 controllers have been put on paid leave and offered psychological care.

The American pilots have tried to cooperate, and initially did not contest the seizure of their passports, which their Brazilian lawyer said was illegal. Now they are considering legal action to retrieve their passports and leave Brazil, Torricella said.

"These guys were near death and are confined in a foreign country for no valid legal or factual reason," he said.

Torricella said the pilots will not talk publicly until they have returned to the United States, for fear of stirring up another media frenzy and out of respect for the victims' relatives.