Met an interesting pilot yesterday....

[BrianGMFS]

My company had to farm out a charter for one of our regulars to another company since we didn't have a big enough airframe for the trip. So Saturday morning sitting on our ramp is a nice shiny Embarer Legacy. As the passenger was his usual 2 hours late I had some time to hangar fly with the Legacy's crew. The SIC (who was also a Captian, the crew swapped legs) mentioned something about the ferry hours to get the airplane to the US from Brazil. I then flippantly remarked that at least this Legacy didn't have a close encounter with a 737 ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gol_Transportes_A%C3%A9reos_Flight_1907 ) The pilot then looked at me and said,"I've already done that"  I suddenly realized that the guy standing in front of me was the PIC on that fateful day when the brand new Legacy he was flying had a mid air collision with GOL Airlines 737. Aghast, I quickly apologised and with a grin he told me to not worry about it. He said it helps for him to talk about it with people in the aviation business (even line guys like me). He told me that besides the missing winglet, the left elevator was only attached to the airplane by one hinge. He also told me that they never knew that their TCAS was inoperative and that he never saw the other airplane. Joe Lepore struck me as a very competent and professional pilot and I shook his hand. I told him I'd fly with him any day. While the "official" cause is still up in the air I'm glad to see that this gentleman is still plying the airways doing what he loves.

Brian

[Rooster Cruiser]

Wow!  I have read the write ups from Joe Sharkey who is a New York Times columnist and passenger on that flight, and I have followed the legal crap and propaganda that the Brazilian Government put out after that accident in order to whip up anti-american sentiment and distract their citizens from the failings of their own ATC system.  What is certain is that Joe Lepore and Jan Paladino did one HELL of a job getting a critically wounded airplane safely onto a runway from 37000 feet before their airplane completely fell apart on them.  That feat is even more remarkable given the fact that the crew was apparently given the location of Cachimbo air force base relative to their position by another aircraft on the frequency.  These guys were probably too busy flying their wounded bird to attempt to put an airport identifier into their FMS and just used the instructions from the other flight crew (former Brazil air force pilots familiar with the area) to pick out Cachimbo visually in the dusk.  They landed sometime around sunset.

My hat's off to Joe and Jan!      May they not be forced to return to Brazil to face trumped up charges in a kangaroo court.

[Oddball]

by the sounds of it that was some flying my hat is off to them 

[Fabo]

Hats off. If you meet him again (on way back maybe?) give him my kudos.