Charges sought in Brazil air crash

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil – A prosecutor on Friday sought formal charges against two U.S. pilots and four Brazilian air traffic controllers in the South American country’s worst air disaster, which left 154 people dead.

Prosecutor Thiago Lemos de Andrade asked a federal judge to issue indictments against U.S. pilots Joseph Lepore and Jan Paul Paladino for involuntary manslaughter and exposing an aircraft to danger, crimes punishable by one to three years in prison, press officer Leonita Violato said.

Lepore, 42, and Paladino, 34, were flying an Embraer Legacy 600 executive jet on Sept. 29, 2006 when it collided with a Boeing 737 operated by Gol Linhas Aereas Intelligentes SA, sending the larger plane crashing into the rain forest and killing everyone onboard.