SAO PAULO (Reuters) - The Brazilian Air Force will release a report next week blaming U.S. pilots who operated a Legacy jet that collided in mid-air with a Brazilian Gol commercial airliner for causing Brazil's second-worst air disaster, a local paper said on Saturday.
O Estado de S. Paulo daily, which had access to details of the report, said pilot error in the Embraer Legacy jet, operated by Long Island-based ExcelAire, was the "central point in a chain of errors" that caused the Gol plane to crash in the jungle killing 154 on board in 2006.
David Rimmer, executive vice president of ExcelAire, said later on Saturday that the newspaper's portrayal of a 300-page report to be released on Wednesday was "a gross misrepresentation" of the Air Force's investigation.
The newspaper said the report focused blame on one of the U.S. pilots who "inadvertently turned off" the Legacy's transponder, which would have prevented the Legacy's winglet from slashing through the larger Gol airliner, sending it hurtling 37,000 feet to the jungle floor.
The Legacy managed an emergency landing with minor damage on a remote airstrip.
The paper said the report also faulted local air traffic control, which failed to properly advise the Legacy jet on its cruising altitudes, and also said there was miscommunication from one controller to another during a shift change about the Legacy's altitude and a failure to communicate between control and the Legacy pilots.
"The transponder is a distraction from the true cause of the accident, which is air traffic control put two airplanes on a collision course for about an hour," Rimmer said. "We have no proof of how the transponder was turned off and no evidence to suggest it was inadvertently turned off by the pilots."
He said the Brazilian Air Force in its investigation of its own management of air traffic control during the time of the accident did not fully explore the transponder failure but "relied on theories rather than conducting in-depth testing of equipment."
The report on the Gol disaster comes a few weeks after local investigators blamed government agencies, pilot error and company policy for a TAM airliner crash that killed 199 in 2007. ID:nN15461337
The occurrence of two major airline accidents within a year has triggered efforts to reform Brazil's military air traffic control system that are still underway.
Rimmer said by phone that part of the problem with the Brazilian Air Force's investigation was the threat of criminal prosecution, especially of the air traffic controllers.
"This tends to hamper information-gathering, which could help us avoid similar disasters in the future," he said.
(Reporting by Reese Ewing; Editing by Eric Walsh)
This computer-generated image shows the two jets a split second prior to collision
The damage to the Legacy's wing. Notice that the winglet has been sheared completely off.
It has been revealed that the final report into a midair collision that killed 154 people in 2006 will blame a string of human error for the disaster. Gol Transportes Aéreos Flight 1907, a Boeing 737, crashed into the ground after an Embraer Legacy 600 executive jet's wing clipped it. The Legacy, owned by ExcelAire, performed an emergency landing at a nearby airbase. 

The report says the Legacy's transponder was "inadvertently turned off by the hand of one of the pilots," and says this was the "central point in a chain of errors" leading to the collision. Crucially, the transponder failure - which the US pilots have denied causing - prevented the Traffic Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) from functioning.
A chunk of wreckage from the Gol airliner.
The investigation, which was conducted by the Brazilian Air Force, criticised air traffic control (ATC) on a number of points; the Legacy was not properly advised on the altitude at which it should be cruising, when one controller changed shift there was a miscommunication between them about the Legacy's altitude and there was a failure of communication between the Legacy and ATC.

The ExcelAire pilots, Joseph Lepore and Jan Paladino, were only allowed to return home after promising they would return to Brazil if summoned by the courts. The pair, along with four air traffic controllers, have been indicted over the crash and all six face up to three years in prison each.
Collision detail
The purpose of this investigation, however, was not to acertain blame but to determine the root causes and suggest measures by which a reccurence can be avoided. Some moves have already been made in the aftermath; the accident was the deadliest in Brazil until TAM Airlines Flight 3054 crashed the following year and both were responsible for the 2006-2007 Brazilian aviation crisis. In response, a major overhaul of the nation's military ATC system is underway.

ExcelAire's executive vice president David Rimmer was critical of the report. "The transponder issue is a distraction from the true cause of the accident, which is an air traffic control system that put two airplanes on a collision course for about an hour," he said. He complained that ATC did not "recognize the transponder failure and to provide increased separation between the two jets, as required by international aviation regulations."

He was also concerned by the Air Force's methodology and the conclusions drawn from it. "We have no proof of how the transponder was turned off and no evidence to suggest it was inadvertently turned off by the pilots," he said. "The Air Force relied on theories rather than conducting in-depth testing of the equipment."

The report's official release is next week, however it has already been seen by Brazilian newspapers, hence making its findings public today.