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).

FMI: http://www.voegol.com.br/, www.embraer.com