Associated Press, "Victims' Lawyers Probe Brazil Accident"

          American attorneys representing families of victims in Brazil's worst air disaster said Monday they were conducting their own investigation to determine responsibility for the crash that killed 154 people and seek compensation.
          Lexi Hazam, an attorney with the San Francisco law firm Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, said the probe, parallel to a separate government inquiry, would be supervised by Hans-Peter Graf, a former head investigator for the Swiss Aviation Authority.
          "We are not suggesting that we won't be looking at the official investigation and we're not suggesting the official investigation will be unreliable. But official reports often suffer long delays, and official investigations often include manufacturers and others who could potentially be held responsible," Hazam said by telephone from Brasilia, the nation's capital.
          Hazam said her law firm would be discussing the case with several families whose relatives were killed in the Sept. 29 crash, although she could not say how many clients the firm was representing in Brazil.
          She said airlines Gol and ExcelAire, as well the aircraft manufacturers and the maker of the anti-collision devices both planes were carrying, could potentially be liable in any eventual lawsuit. Both Hazam and Brazilian authorities have said they were also looking into pilot error as one of the possible causes of the crash.

Learn more about the legal rights of the families of victims of airplane crashes.