Citing “a built-in conflict of interest” in the Brazilian military’s accident investigation report for the 2006 collision of a Boeing 737 airliner and an Embraer Legacy 600, one of the attorneys representing the business jet pilots against manslaughter charges claims the document “manufactures and exaggerates liability on the part of the pilots.”

The U.S. Department of Justice last month indicted five Platinum Jet Management executives and a pilot on 23 criminal counts related to what it says are illegal practices that led to the 2005 Challenger 600 runway overrun and crash at Teterboro Airport in New Jersey.

Maintenance technicians are even more susceptible to criminalization following aviation accidents because, as Brian Finnegan points out, “the signoff [for a maintenance assignment] lasts forever, so liability follows the mechanic for years afterward.”