Day 52 and counting

This is the 52nd since the late September midair collision between a Gol Airlines Boeing 737 and an Embraer Legacy 600 in the skies over the Brazilian rain forest and quite honestly, I’m baffled.

Like others, I’m obviously perplexed by how these two modern day aircraft ran together, especially since both were equipped with the latest in traffic avoidance technology.

But what truly amazes me is that the two U.S. pilots – Joe Lepore and Jan Paladino – are still under house arrest in Brazil, reportedly somewhere near Rio. The two have not been charged with a crime. The Brazilian government simply won’t let them leave. No one I’ve spoken to from any of the aviation alphabet groups in the United States seem to have any idea of when these two will be freed.
Does it seem odd to anyone else that the only discussions about the crash focus around the failure of the technology or the system?

In a chat last Friday with the folks at ICAO in Montreal, I was told this may not be an international incident because the airplane, on an apparent delivery flight to the United States, might still have been linked to its Brazilian registry making the entire problem no more than a case of internal Brazilian politics.

There are plenty of aviation industry people and diplomats who should have some idea about the efforts that could, or should be, under way to get these two out, but no one’s talking.

So why the silence about these men? Is some one at work behind the scenes trying to get them out? Perhaps these two remain under arrest for some unspoken crime. If it were me down there in Brazil, I’d want people up here – and around the world – to be asking questions like these and plenty more. I also wouldn’t want people to assume is working on my behalf during all the silence.

I wonder if the Brazilian response to this crash would have been the same if these two men were British Airways’ pilots or the cockpit crew from a French business airplane.

Perhaps. But I doubt the French would be idly sitting back watching a couple of French citizens languish in jail with no mention of them back in Paris.

Certainly, each country has the right and indeed the duty to enforce its own airspace, just as those with oceanic borders enforce their three or 12-mile offshore limits on the high seas.

While we try to get Joe and Jan out, we should also be wondering how this collision and the resulting arrest of these two pilots will impact international civil aviation operations and law from this point forward.

If a similar incident occurred today in Thailand, or China, should crewmembers also expect to be detained without charge, for the un-defined length of an accident or incident investigation?

ICAO calls itself a “UN Specialized Agency and the global forum for civil aviation that works to achieve the safe, secure and sustainable development of civil aviation through cooperation amongst its member States.”

Everyone wants to know why those two airplanes ran together over Brazil, but it’s high time to get Joe and Jan out of Brazil.

It’s also high time that ICAO and the other groups that represent aviation around the world demand diplomacy take over if no one else can bring these two home while the investigation takes place.

As aviation industry professionals, we can’t simply stand back and hope someone else is working on the solution. Whether this is a domestic or an international issue, I’ll be happy to journal my apologizes and even embarrassment at my lack of faith in our governing bodies if these guys soon come marching home.

But if no one is making an effort, which seems apparent right now, I’d like to encourage everyone to help get these guys home. Call the NBAA, call you’re newly elected members of Congress, as well as the ones who are still around, call State Department, the FAA and let’s start calling the Brazilian Embassy in Washington.

Wouldn’t you want this kind of help if you were stuck in a country that’s acting as if it were a third-world nation?