By MICHAEL ASTOR
The Associated Press
Wednesday, October 11, 2006; 2:00 AM
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil -- Brazil's defense minister said two American pilots were "irresponsible" in claiming they were at the correct altitude when their plane collided with a Gol airlines Boeing 737-800 and apparently caused it to crash, killing all 154 people.
Authorities are investigating why the pilots were flying the Embraer Legacy 600 executive jet at 37,000 feet, an altitude reserved for planes going in the opposite direction at the time of the crash _ Brazil's worst air disaster.
"It was a frivolous statement ... It was irresponsible," Waldir Pires said of the pilots' claim. "The flight plan says that the (planes) should fly on even-number levels."
On an interview with Globo TV aired Tuesday, Pires balked at any suggestion that errors by Brazilian air traffic controllers led to the crash.
Pilots Joseph Lepore, of Bay Shore, New York, and Jan Paladino, of Westhampton Beach, New York, told Mato Grosso state police that they were only following the flight plan when their jet collided with the Boeing over the Amazon rainforest on Sept. 29.
The Boeing crashed into the jungle while the Legacy, which was on its maiden flight to U.S. purchaser ExcelAire Service Inc., landed safely at a Brazilian military base with none of the seven people aboard harmed.
On Tuesday, Edimara Fagundes, spokeswoman for the Mato Grosso Civil Police, said that the pilots' statements contradicted the flight plan obtained from the plane's Brazilian manufacturer and that investigators would seek to interview the two pilots again.
Brazilian authorities seized the passports of the Legacy pilots to prevent them from leaving the country. While they have not been arrested, the pilots remain holed up in a Rio de Janeiro hotel until the investigation is complete.
Fagundes said the flight plan shows the Legacy was to fly at 37,000 feet from the southern city of Sao Jose dos Campos until it changed course over the nation's central capital of Brasilia.
At that point, the plane turned northwest should have dropped to 36,000 feet. After flying another 310 miles, the flight plan said the plane should have risen to 38,000 feet.
But the pilots told investigators they lost contact with air traffic controllers after Brasilia and stuck to the altitude of 37,000 feet, where the collision apparently occurred.
Brazilian authorities have suggested the pilots may have turned off the executive jet's transponder, which transmits the aircraft's location and is used to warn other jets equipped with anti-collision devices that it is nearby. Both planes had anti-collision equipment on board.
The American pilots have repeatedly denied they turned off the device and said they did nothing wrong.