Somewhere over the Amazon jungle in Brazil contemporary, present-day plane crossed paths and one in all them in no way landed. It's far assumed that, at 37,000 feet, those aircraft collided and the larger of the two, a Boeing 737-800, entered a descending spiral which culminated at the ground of the jungle. The jungle was so thick that rescuers needed to parachute in and clean landing spaces for rescue helicopters. Of the 154 team and passengers on the Boeing none survived.

Meanwhile, an Embraer Legacy six hundred commercial enterprise jet experienced a mild "jolt," defined via a instances creator as a "vehicle hitting a pothole," landed at a nearby navy base in which they observed harm to the left winglet and some injury to its tail. The wing had begun to peel again, inflicting the Legacy passengers to worry they had been going to crash. However, the pilots had been capable of land safely.

What happened?

As with most aviation accidents the purpose is not without problems apparent. Every plane was beneath air traffic control (ATC), and every flight becomes equipped with TCAS (visitors Collision Avoidance gadget) which ought to have warned them they were too close. To similarly complicate things, these plane had been working in a "gray" area of radar insurance wherein one-of-a-kind ATC centers" duties overlap. It seems that the Legacy jet turned into following one airway at 37,000 toes and became speculated to descend to 36,000 feet upon attaining but every other airway.
The Boeing turned into traversing the location at 37,000 ft.

The thrilling element.

Brazilian authorities have detained the team of the Legacy jet by way of taking their passports and no longer allowing them to depart the USA. Similarly, officers have claimed that this team purposely became off their transponder (a tool in the plane in which the team sets a unique 4 digit code) for you to perform some "pilot tricks" in their aircraft. If the transponder becomes, indeed, became off, or just did not work, then the TCAS structures in each the Boeing and the Legacy jet might not work well. As a pilot I can tell you that after the TCAS is working the warnings could be tough, if not possible, to ignore!

However, in another development, it turns out that the producer of the transponder, Honeywell, had problems with earlier versions of this model while the team took longer than five (five) seconds to set a brand new code upon request of ATC. If it took longer than 5 (5) seconds the transponder might pass into the "standby" mode, and could no longer be transmitting its proper sign.

Honeywell denies this unique transponder could have that hassle and insists that it had long ago recommended operators of the hassle and had issued a software program improve to restoration the trouble. The pilots deny that they became the transponder off, and it's miles tough to assume everybody might do the sort of issue.

So at the same time as we're left to ponder the purpose, the crew is left in limbo, trapped in Brazil, amongst a hostile populace who need revenge for the deaths of 154 people.

Pilot error or mechanical failure?

We will purest hope that the Brazilian government gets this one proper and that the right, definitive motive of this coincidence is decided. As a fellow pilot, I am hoping and trust the motivation become now not some "cowboy" activities, and that the pilots are back home competently and soon.

preserve your wings stage and fly straight.

"Crusty Captain"

John White, aka "Crusty Captain," is a former company pilot with several plane kind rankings and lots of flight hours in jet aircraft, turboprop plane, and piston-powered aircraft. With an Airline Transport Pilot's license and as a former flight trainer and the former proprietor of an aviation coverage corporation, I've massive experience with preferred aviation, accident reviews and other sources concerning aviation. My goal is to offer an other complete view of aviation in well-known from a pilot's angle.