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Brazil court upholds US pilots conviction

Dunya News

The two would serve their sentence in an open regime.

A Brazilian court has upheld the conviction of two US pilots for their role in a mid-air collision that killed 154 people, but ruled that they did not have to serve jail time.The federal court in Brasilia reduced from 52 months to 37 months the sentence on Joseph Lepore and Jan Paladino over the 2006 crash. They returned to the United States in December 2006 after being held for a few weeks in Brazil.A court spokesman said the two, retried in their absence, would serve their sentence in an open regime, meaning they would not have to set foot in jail but would need to check in with authorities.The two pilots of an Embraer Legacy jet collided with a Gol Boeing 737 at about 37,000 feet (12,300 meters) over central Brazil on September 29, 2006.After five years of investigation and legal wrangling, a lower court in the central western state of Matto Grosso had sentenced the two pilots of the business jet to 52 months in jail last year. However, this was later commuted to community service in the United States.But relatives of the victims pressed for a new trial, insisting the two Americans were negligent and thus responsible for the tragedy. The pilots rejected the charge and insisted they were cleared by air traffic controllers to fly at that level.The two Americans were able to bring their jet and five passengers safely to the ground even though part of the aircrafts tail was sheared off.After the September 29, 2006 accident the two were accused by Brazilian authorities of illegally exposing their aircraft to danger.We hope that they will be permanently barred from flying again so that they do not endanger other lives and so that they serve their sentence in jail, said Rosane Gutjahr, who lost her husband in the accident.