CURITIBA, Brazil–LAWFUEL – The Law Newswire – After almost eight months since the largest airplane accident in Brazilian skies, the Federal Police deputy, Renato Sayão, responsible for the investigation, closed it after preparing the police investigation’s final report and having sent it to Sinop’s Federal Police, placing responsibility on the American pilots Joseph Lepore and Jan Paul Paladino.
“The pilots were indicted as guilty of negligent misconduct, when in fact we feel that they should have been indicted as guilty of willful misconduct,” states Rosa Gutjhar, Rolf Gutjhar’s widow.
“The fact that the American pilots were unprepared, without technical knowledge, in addition to the widely reported conversation of the pilots with Cindacta, where they clearly state that they were flying with the TCas turned off, is enough to indict them as guilty of willful misconduct,” explains attorney Claudio Pimentel.
“There will be willful misconduct any time that the agent, even though not on purpose wanting to do it, accepts as possible or even likely, assuming the risk of the outcome… it is only necessary that the outcome be possible or likely,” says Pimentel, citing from the legal doctrine on that criminal category from masters Zaffaroni & Pierangeli.
Angelita de Marchi, Plínio Siqueira’s widow and Vice President of the Association of Relatives and Friends of Gol’s Flight 1907 Victims, believes that the Attorney General’s Office, based on all the documentation and work presented by the Federal Police, already has enough basis to charge the perpetrators without requesting any additional queries.
In an interview granted to the O Estado de São Paulo newspaper, published on May 8, the attorney for the American pilots stated that there was a problem with the communication system of the Legacy jet. Attorney Leonardo Amarante, representing several of the families, believes that the eventual communication difficulties do not diminish the pilot’s guilt, because, if a pilot is unable to communicate in a specified frequency, another frequency must be tried, as there are several available frequencies. “A pilot cannot be without communication with the air traffic control tower for as long as the Legacy pilots were,” states Amarante.
