Friday, August 3, 2007
MANAUS: Controladores de vôo pedem socorro
Controladores de vôo pedem socorro em carta
28/07/2007
Um texto elaborado por controladores de vôo e enviado à reportagem do Estado neste sábado revela que a crise dentro do Centro Integrado de Defesa Aérea e Controle de Tráfego Aéreo (Cindacta) 4, em Manaus, está longe de acabar. Os militares se dizem "perseguidos" pelo comando da Aeronáutica e pedem "socorro" à sociedade.
De acordo com os controladores, a prisão do presidente da Associação Amazônica dos Controladores de Tráfego Aéreo, tenente Wilson Alencar, "está recheada de irregularidades e arbitrariedades"
Wilson Alencar foi detido na última quinta-feira, por determinação do comando da Aeronáutica, no Amazonas, sob o argumento de ter faltado ao serviço. Na versão apresentada pela Força Aérea Brasileira (FAB), Alencar não justificou o motivo da ausência ao serviço no dia 5 de julho deste ano.
Segundo controladores de vôo, Alencar faltou ao serviço para acompanhar a esposa ao médico. Mesmo tendo justificado a ausência com um atestado médico e um termo de acompanhamento da esposa, o tenente recebeu, em 6 de julho, uma Ficha de Avaliação de Transgressão Disciplinar (Fatd) e foi imediatamente transferido para o Sétimo Comando Aéreo Regional (Comar), em Manaus. Na ocasião, era o sexto controlador afastado do Cindacta 4 Como registram os militares, só no dia 26 de julho, 21 dias depois da falta teoricamente não justificada, e quando já estava atuando no Sétimo Comar, Wilson Alencar recebeu a notícia de que ficaria detido por quatro dias.
"Vale ressaltar que o regulamento prevê que o detido seja comunicado três dias antes de sua punição, para que o mesmo se prepare", dizem os controladores "No Cindacta 4 estamos sendo queimados vivos simplesmente por exigir melhores condições de trabalho e maiores coeficientes de segurança. Qualquer pequeno motivo é objeto para responder por transgressão", dizem os militares, no texto.
"Pedimos socorro a todos", registram. "Está chovendo cadeia aqui em Manaus. Infelizmente, nossos superiores não aprenderam com duas tragédias. Se valem do pretexto de hierarquia e disciplina para enforcar todos aqueles que ousam relatar as inúmeras falhas do sistema", concluem.
Fonte: Agencia Estado
My source was this blog: http://atcbrasil.blogspot.com/2007/08/manaus-controladores-de-vo-pedem.html
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17 comentários:
Nancy,
Isto é uma reação em cadeia iniciada quando seu amigo, Joe Sharkey, culpou injustamente o controle de vôo pelo acidente da GOL. Os controladores, a imprensa e o governo introjetaram esta culpa. Os controladores tiveram como reação dizer que as condições de trabalho são insatisfatórias e passaram a reagir na forma do apagão aéreo, quando na verdade deveriam atacar a origem, não se colocarem como culpados, como realmente não são. As condições de trabalho dos controladores brasileiros deveriam ser melhores? Sim, como dos médicos, professores e outros profissionais deste pais, mas não são muito diferentes das condições dos controladores americanos. Veja Aqui.
Você não parou para pensar porque o acidente foi justamente acontecer com o Joe Lepore, sem nenhuma experiência do espaço aéreo brasileiro, e não com um dos inúmeros pilotos da aviação comercial americana que cruzam Brasília para os EUA todos os dias? É muito azar dele mesmo, justo no seu primeiro vôo para cá!
Carlos, sorry for taking so long to reply to your comment, but I have been very busy. Joe Sharkey, who, by the way, is not a friend of mine, has just published a new post on this subject (post of August 15, 2007) (http://sharkeyonbrazil.blogspot.com) and I have written a comment about his post on his blog. You raise some good questions. I have been asking the same questions since last October. But, you are putting the responsibility on the pilots when, in fact, they are only employees. Please see my comment on Mr. Sharkey's blog post. Thank you for commenting. Tenney
Dear Tenney,
I am an employee too, and I must have professional skills and training. A taxi driver has the duty of studying traffic regulation and drive with caution. Be an employee is not a excuse. But it is not we who should condemn the pilots or even Mr. Sharkey that should innocent them. Criminalization doesn’t mean that there is the criminal intent. Until know what is going on is a criminal investigation. This is the law everywhere. The transponder stuff is until now, not well explained. So it should be investigated. It’s completely not true that “there should be no criminal liability without intent to do harm”, as Mr. Sharkey and pilot’s attorneys say. Criminal liability can be charged if there is unskilfulness, incompetence, incapacity, inadequacy. If a drunk driver dies in a car accident, he is still the criminal. And why doesn’t Mr. Sharkey defend the four air controllers that are being prosecuted? They didn’t intent to do harm too. What Mr. Sharkey wants? Oh, the pilots could be dead…, the pilots are shocked…, they have no intention…, they where punished enough…, let it be?
I’ve just made a comment in Joe’s blog, why pilots must be prosecuted, but I think he won’t publish. What Joe is asking is not to do justice, fearing that is not fair to blame them. Nothing, until now, was done against the law.
Regards.
Dear Carlos, I don't think that Americans and Brazilians will ever agree on this subject because our legal systems are so different. In the U.S., this matter would have been a civil case, not a criminal case. Everyone knows that human beings are not perfect, and that accidents will occur. This is the reason that, in the U.S., all companies buy liability insurance (just as you do for your car). So, in this case, the civil courts (not the criminal courts) would decide who is liable for the accident. Sometimes, they will divide the responsibility among the various parties. The criminal courts would not be involved in this case because the pilots were not drinking or drugged and they were not intentionally negligent.
Let us suppose, hypothetically, that they were not qualified. Who, then, has the responsibility for that? Their boss? Let us also suppose, hypothetically, that Embraer knew the two pilots had never flown in Brazil and that they did not speak Portuguese. Is Embraer also responsible?
In the U.S., American companies are acutely aware of liability because there are so many lawsuits ("processos") against companies. Also, in our culture, all Americans are aware of this. This sort of legal subject is something that all Americans know about. We have insurance policies for everything to protect us against liability lawsuits.
And, in a case like this one, the lawyers will always try to put the blame on the person or company with the "deepest pockets" (this means the company who has the most money, because they have the conditions to pay more for the mistake).
So, it would be natural for the lawyers to try to blame the manufacturer of the transponder, and Embraer, and the company who the pilots worked for. The lawyers know that the pilots don't have much money, so they will not try to blame them.
What is the meaning of "uma reação em cadeia"? My Portuguese is not very good.
Abraços, Tenney
Dear Tenney,
With all respect, as far as I known, our legal systems are almost the same on this subject. This matter would have been a civil case, as well a criminal case, even in US. The Joint Resolution Regarding Criminalization of Aviation Accidents (2006) points the 1996 ValuJet Flight 592 in Florida. So, this is something that also happens in US. This is an old subject that now strongly re-emerged due to the Gol accident.
And we are talking about this subject as if the pilots had been condemned, and they were not. The pilots said that controllers put them on wrong level. This is very serious. It was the pilots who started pointing that there was misconduct of air traffic control. This is not a simple accident, where something in the aircraft goes wrong and fails. Two groups, pilots and controllers, are blaming each other. Who will decide? Justice. An aeronautical expert will not judge it; they will just report the facts. Justice will not judge without aeronautical investigation fundamentals. And judge may blame pilots, Excelaire, Embraer, Brazilian air traffic control, controllers, government, …, or even no one if justice consider just an accident. And remember that justice in Brazil takes years to be done. There will be a long way.
Regards.
PS: "reação em cadeia" means chain reaction (I think). When something starts a stuff, that starts another, and so on...
(Carlos, I had to delete two of my comments in order to correctly write the link to the No Ar blog.)
My dear Carlos,
Today, I received an interesting e-mail from an Airbus pilot, a Brazilian. He has a blog called "No Ar," and it has a lot of technical information written in Portuguese.
I think you will discover many things about the Legacy that was involved in the Gol tragedy.
Here is the link (look at his post of 24-04-2007): http://www.globoonliners.com.br//
icox.php?mdl=busca&op=um_blog&
usuario=363&idfrom=363:0&tag=
legacy
Abraços,
Tenney
Abraços,
Tenney
Dear Tenney,
I read No Ar blog, but George seems more like a flight simulator pilot than a real pilot. It’s a good blog, but arises several hypotheses not confirmed. I think that a real pilot don’t write the way he does. I think that his arguments have a lot of fantasies, but it doesn’t matter. He has strong concerns about Legacy transponder, and believes that it could have failed. He arises a lot of technical issues that is not true. Even if it is true, it doesn’t change responsibilities. Legacy’s pilots didn’t note it. How someone can fly in a plane without one instrument for almost one hour? Another argument is about the wrong level, that he believes that ATC told the pilots that they should fly to Manaus at level 370. This is not true, and clearly there was a misunderstanding between ATC and the pilots. It is unconceivable that ATC doesn’t know that levels 320, 340, 360, 380 were fixed to Manaus and 330, 350, 370, 390 to Brasilia, and ignoring that, put them at wrong level. There are dozens of planes crossing this route every day. We would have a mid-air collision every day. If there was a flight plane that says they should descend to level 360 in Brasilia VOR, then climb to 380 at Teres, shouldn’t the pilots guess something? I am not a pilot, and I would be very worried if ATC put me at level 370.
But now, the debate with Joe Sharkey is about laws and process, and he is creating suspicion about our courts, and this way trying to innocent the pilots, blaming ATC, Honeywell and Embraer. Even if pilots are innocent, there must be a criminal investigation, as there would be everywhere. Why to blame only ATC?
Dear Carlos, I want to talk about only one thing in this particular comment, and that is about flight plans. Flight plans are not written in granito, as we say. They are really only a type of basic suggestion of the flight. When a plane is in the air, the pilot must trust the ATC to know what the real conditions are up there. For example, commercial jets can be delayed, there can be storms that must be flown around, there can be strong headwinds, and all sorts of things can happen. So, really, it is a general type of document. No pilot actually expects to fly exactly according to the flight plan. They must pay attention to exactly what the ATC says to them because the ACT is the only one who knows what is going on up there.
The argument that the Americans did not follow their flight plan is not a real argument. Most flight plans are not followed. But, there are reasons for this. And, as we know, the Gol was also not following its original flight plan because it was told to fly at 37,000 feet (originally, its flight plan was to fly at 41,000 feet).
So, can we leave the flight plan out of the discussion in future?
Boa noite,
Tenney
Tenney,
You said "So, can we leave the flight plan out of the discussion in future?"
This is the our point-of-view conflict. If you don't want do discuss it, it's the end of the line. And flight plan does matter. What is a flight plan for? And what flight plan tell us? It tell us that no one controller would put any pilot in level 370 in this route. This is a fact. ATC could put them at level 320, 340, 360, 380, 400 but never at level 370. That is why Gol flight was planed to fly at 410 and was flying at level 370. This is clear in aeronautical charts, it is a two-way route. If it is two-way route there are levels for each direction. If plan tells levels 360 and 380, and a controllers tells the pilot to flight at level 370, something is wrong. They may always change plans, but never fly where they are not allowed. I've never said that they couldn't change plan, what I said is that they should guess that they were at wrong level if they had studied Brazilian routes.
I think that this was a minor error of the pilots, but combined with other minor error, the transponder stuff, cause the accident.
Boa noite.
Dear Carlos,
You really need to read this post:
http://aviationtroubleshooting.
blogspot.com/2007/08/
legacy-plano-de-vo-apresentado
-no-foi.html
And this one:
http://aviationtroubleshooting.
blogspot.com/2007/08/
controle-de-vo-gravadores
-dos.html
And this one:
http://aviationtroubleshooting.
blogspot.com/2007/08/
legacy-transponder-standby
-tcas-off.html
It is all in Portuguese. Then, if you want to discuss this subject, please discuss it with George Rocha -- he knows a lot more about these subjects than we do.
I do not have anything else to say about the flight plan or the transponder. I will believe what George has written in his blog, until someone with more technical knowledge disagrees with him and also presents better evidence.
Take care,
Tenney
Dear Tenney,
As I said before, Mr. George is not a real pilot, he is a flight simulator pilot (the game). All his conclusions are fantasies. You are based on wrong conclusion. There are non-sense questions done by politicians at CPI that people answered with non-sense phrases. All he is saying about transponder are fantasies too, but I can't explain in this comment. I've read pilots fóruns, and not their blogs. And it is not why someone, as Mr. George, raises a lot of fantasies that they are true. Show me a newspaper that published his fantasies?
As you said "I will believe what George has written in his blog", and I believe on experts reports and real pilots, and real newspaper.
Best regards.
PS: Joe Sharkey continues to not publish my comentaries. I answered the the Varig 254 stuff and pilots conviction, but it didn't pubblish. He publish only my comments when you comment mine, and then he doesn't publish my answer. That is why a write in your blog.
Dear Carlos,
Please send me the website addresses of the pilots' forums. I would like to read them.
Thank you!
Tenney,
The best forum I’ve found at internet is PPRuNe Professional Pilots Rumour Network, and there are a lot of guys that doesn’t agree with me, but the thread of TAM accident is very good.
You don’t have to be worried about pilots’ destiny, because, as far as I know, they will never be extradited to Brazil. They would have to be heard again here, and US won’t allow. And what would happen to them is the same as the pilots of flight Varig 254, nothing. Joe Sharkey didn’t publish my post where I commented this accident. The link is here: Descrição das penalidades judiciais impostas ao piloto e co-piloto. Brazilians controllers are those who will have a bad luck, because they probably will be convicted, and will loose their jobs.
I know that there are a lot of people that are not confident with justice in Brazil, but this is almost the same everywhere. How many Brazilians are having problems with US justice? And the Brazilian guy that was killed in London by policemen? I’m not confident with Brazilian justice, as you, but we can not blame only the ATC and the controllers. Do you imagine how many airplanes cross this route (Brasilia to Manaus) every day? How many mid-air collisions we would have if what Joe Sharkey would be true? We can not ask for not making justice, fearing injustice. The aeronautical investigation is not completed yet, and suit won’t go on until it is completed.
Good Night.
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