Gol Transportes Aéreos Flight 1907
GOL Transportes Aereos Boeing 737-8EH(SFP) and ExcelAire (delivery flight) Embraer Legacy 600 · Mid-air collision due to ATC error and pilot error
Event
- NTSB case
- DCA06RA076
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Unknown · led by another country; figures from NTSB notifications
- Event fatalities
- 154 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- 161
- Survivors
- 7
- InjuriesFatal: death within 30 days. Serious: over 48 hours in hospital within a week, most broken bones, severe bleeding, nerve or organ damage, or serious burns. Minor: anything less. Glossary
- 0 serious · 0 minor (NTSB)
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- Airline
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Aircraft 1 · Boeing 737-8EH(SFP)
- Flight
- G31907
- Aircraft type
- Boeing 737
- Category
- Airplane
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- PR-GTD
- Operator
- Gol Transportes Aéreos
- Onboard fatalities
- 154
- Occupants
- 154
- Survivors
- 0
- InjuriesFatal: death within 30 days. Serious: over 48 hours in hospital within a week, most broken bones, severe bleeding, nerve or organ damage, or serious burns. Minor: anything less. Glossary
- None · no survivors
- Route
- From Eduardo Gomes International Airport (MAO)To Rio de Janeiro Galeão – Tom Jobim International Airport (GIG)
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Non-U.S., Commercial
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- Not recorded
- Defining eventThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- Not recorded
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Aircraft 2 · Embraer Legacy 600
- Aircraft type
- Embraer Legacy 600
- Category
- Airplane
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- N600XL
- Operator
- ExcelAire (delivery flight)
- Onboard fatalities
- 0
- Occupants
- 7
- Survivors
- 7
- InjuriesFatal: death within 30 days. Serious: over 48 hours in hospital within a week, most broken bones, severe bleeding, nerve or organ damage, or serious burns. Minor: anything less. Glossary
- Not stated
- Route
- From São José dos Campos Airport, BrazilTo Long Island MacArthur Airport (ISP)
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Part 91: General Aviation
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- Not recorded
- Defining eventThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- Not recorded
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Minor
Cause areas
- Environmental issues › Operating environment
- Personnel issues › Psychological
From the investigation findings the Wikipedia article reports, sorted into the NTSB's cause areas with AI assistance.
Approximate · Coordinates from the Wikipedia article; not checked against an investigation report.
From the Wikipedia article
On September 29, 2006, Gol Transportes Aéreos Flight 1907, a Boeing 737-800 on a scheduled domestic passenger flight from Manaus, Brazil, to Brasília and Rio de Janeiro, collided mid-air with an Embraer Legacy 600 business jet flying on an opposite heading over the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso. The winglet of the Legacy sliced off about half of the 737's left wing, causing the 737 to break up and crash into an area of dense jungle, killing all 154 passengers and crew on board. Despite sustaining serious damage to its left wing and tail, the Legacy landed with its seven occupants uninjured.
The accident was investigated by the Brazilian Aeronautical Accidents Investigation and Prevention Center (Centro de Investigação e Prevenção de Acidentes Aeronáuticos – CENIPA) and the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), and a final report was issued in 2008. CENIPA concluded that the accident was caused by air traffic control (ATC) errors, combined with mistakes made by the American pilots on the Legacy, including a failure to recognize that their traffic collision avoidance system (TCAS) was not activated, while the NTSB determined that both flight crews acted properly and were placed on a collision course by ATC, deeming the Legacy pilots' disabling of their TCAS system to be only a contributing factor rather than a direct cause.
The accident triggered a crisis in Brazilian civil aviation. It remains the second-deadliest plane crash in Brazil, after TAM Airlines Flight 3054 in 2007.
Accident
At 16:56:54 BRT (19:56:54 UTC), the Boeing 737 and the Embraer Legacy jet collided almost head-on at 37000 ft, approximately midway between Brasília and Manaus, near the town of Matupá, 750 km southeast of Manaus. The left winglet of the Embraer sheared off about half of the 737's left wing (the 737's left engine was unaffected, remaining attached to the wing part that stayed attached to the aircraft), causing the 737 to nosedive and enter an uncontrollable spin, which quickly led to an in-flight breakup. The cockpit voice recorder (CVR) cut off at 16:57:47, less than a minute after the collision. The interruption was attributed to the loss of electrical power following the in-flight structural breakup of the aircraft at an altitude of approximately 8000 ft.
The Boeing 737 crashed into an area of dense rainforest, 200 km east of the municipality of Peixoto de Azevedo. All 154 passengers and crew died and the aircraft was destroyed, with the wreckage scattered around the crash site.
The Embraer jet was able to continue flying, despite serious damage to the left horizontal stabilizer and left winglet, though its autopilot disengaged and it required an unusual amount of force on the yoke to keep the wings level. With radio relay assistance from Polar Air Cargo Flight 71, a Boeing 747 cargo aircraft flying in the area, the Embraer's crew successfully landed the crippled jet at Cachimbo Airport, part of the large military complex Campo de Provas Brigadeiro Velloso, about 160 km from the collision point. Passenger and journalist Joe Sharkey described his experience on board the Embraer in an article for The New York Times titled "Colliding With Death at 37,000 Feet, and Living", filed on 1 October 2006:
Investigation and cause
Investigation
The accident was investigated by the Brazilian Air Force's Aeronautical Accidents Investigation and Prevention Center (CENIPA) and the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). In accordance with the provisions of ICAO Annex 13, the NTSB participated in the investigation as representative for the state (country) of manufacture of the Boeing, state of registry and operator of the Embraer, and state of manufacture of the Honeywell avionics equipment installed in both planes.
Once the black boxes and communication transcripts were obtained, the investigators interviewed the Legacy jet's flight crew and the air traffic controllers, trying to piece together the scenario that allowed two modern jet aircraft, equipped with the latest anticollision gear, to collide with each other while on instrument flights in positive control airspace.
The Embraer's flight plan consisted of flying at FL370 to Brasília, on airway UW2, followed by a planned descent at Brasília to FL360 (about 36000 ft), proceeding outbound from Brasília northwest-bound along airway UZ6 to the Teres fix, an aeronautical waypoint located 282 nmi northwest of Brasília, where a climb to FL380 (about 38000 ft) was planned. According to the filed flight plan, the Embraer was scheduled to have been level at FL380, proceeding towards Manaus, while passing the eventual collision point, which was about 307 km northwest of Teres.
The Embraer's crew asserted in their depositions and subsequent interviews that they were cleared by ATC to FL370 for the entire trip, all the way to Manaus. The actual transcript of the clearance given to the Embraer's crew prior to takeoff at São José dos Campos at 14:41:57, as later released by CENIPA, was:
November Six Zero Zero Xray Lima, ATC clearance to Eduardo Gomes, flight level three seven zero direct Poços de Caldas, squawk transponder code four five seven four, after take-off perform Oren departure.
The Embraer's crew's altitude clearance to FL370 was further confirmed after their handoff to Brasília, during which they had the following radio exchange with ATC at 15:51.
This was the last successful two-way radio communication between the Embraer's crew and ATC prior to the collision.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Gol Transportes Aéreos Flight 1907” (revision 1372331506, retrieved 2026-09-18) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out. Read the article
Sources
Wikipedia article: Gol Transportes Aéreos Flight 1907
- Revision
- 1372331506 · 2026-08-31 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q1351598
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
NTSB record DCA06RA076
- Event ID
- 20061002X01435
- Case number
- DCA06RA076
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Where each value comes from
- Record
- Wikipedia article "Gol Transportes Aéreos Flight 1907" (page 7218040, revision 1372331506); merged with NTSB case DCA06RA076 (events / aircraft)
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- Wikipedia: Wikipedia article coordinates
- Aircraft, operator and route
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft type, registration, operator, origin and destination; route airports from the linked airport articles' Wikidata codes (OurAirports); gaps and aircraft details from NTSB record DCA06RA076
- Operation
- airline flight number in the infobox
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia: Wikipedia infobox: total_fatalities
- Ground fatalities
- Wikipedia: not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
- Summary
- Wikipedia infobox: summary
Source notes (2)
- One occurrence in two sources, merged: the Wikipedia article "Gol Transportes Aéreos Flight 1907" and NTSB case DCA06RA076, matched by the same aircraft registration and date. For this event outside the United States Wikipedia's values are used where the two differ; each value names its source.
- No bulk values were replaced by the NTSB case API.