Updated

Brazil's Supreme Court has rejected an appeal by two U.S. pilots who were sentenced to over three years in prison for their role in a 2006 midair collision with a jetliner over the Amazon that killed 154 people.

The appeal was of a 2011 ruling that pilots Joseph Lepore and Jan Paladino were negligent for not verifying that anti-collision equipment on their Embraer Legacy 600 executive jet was operational. They were convicted of impeding the safe navigation of an airplane.

Lepore and Paladino are in the United States. They deny the accusation and have appealed their convictions in absentia.

In its ruling late Thursday, the Supreme Court ordered the two to return to Brazil and serve their sentences.

The pilots' attorney was not immediately available for comment.