Brazil’s Cenipa accident investigation bureau has issued its report on the September 2006 midair over the Amazon, along with an NTSB dissent. The report makes public some new facts on what led two brand-new aircraft– a Gol Boeing 737-800 airliner with less than a month of service, and an Embraer Legacy 600 on its delivery flight to ExcelAire, in New York–equipped with the most modern safety and navigation systems, to be put on a collision course, and to continue unimpeded for an hour.
According to Cenipa, a botched clearance, an hour-long communications failure and the disabling of the Legacy’s transponder were significant factors in the collision. The lack of a reliable altitude from the transponder conspired with flaws in ATC software and inadequate training and supervision to allow the Legacy pilots to fly at the incorrect altitude for the airway without correction from ATC. Turning off the transponder also disabled the TCAS collision avoidance system. Both report and dissent acknowledge that the Legacy crew most likely inadvertently turned off the transponder.
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