US Pilots Joe Lepore and Jan Paladino on the Today Show

[CAL EWR B737]

Click on the link below and after a short commercial the five minute interview of Joe and Jan with Matt Lauer is available to view.

Click here: MSNBC Video

 

[acaTerry]

My dial up is not liking it...anyone care to summarize?

 

[glasspilot]

Good interview. They summarized the facts while sounding remorseful and downplaying the "hero" slant. ATC cleared 'em to 370. They climbed to 370. Heard a "bang", lost the auto-pilot, got the plane under control and landed at a military base. The Brazilians held them in a hotel for 2 months as they are considered "suspects" in a criminal investigation. They were allowed visits from family. The Brazilian authorities have yet to decide if they want to charge them. They would be looking at 12 to 20 years for "neglecting the duties that are expected and required" (or something to that effect).

Good luck to them. Personally I don't think they will ever be charged. The emotions were running high a couple of months ago and the government felt it had to do something to calm the public. Easier to blame a couple foreign pilots than to admit the entire ATC of your country is woefully broke.

 

[doh]

Note to self: Exercise extreme caution when dealing with third world, banana republic types! Brazil would have been happier if the pilots and pax would have died, because then they could have blamed the Americans for the Third World Jungle clearance that they ( The Brazilian ATC) gave them. But, superior airmanship means that eventually Brazil is going to have to admit that they are a third world jungle when it comes to ATC. They really should have been more low key about this whole thing and they could have let it die quietly. Now, when the facts come out, the world will know what a backward, primitive place Brazil is.