RIO DE JANEIRO, June 1 (Reuters) - A Brazilian federal judge on Friday indicted two U.S. pilots and four local air traffic controllers for contributing to Brazil's worst air crash, which killed 154 people last year.

The prosecutor's office in western Mato Grosso state, where a Boeing 737 operated by Brazilian carrier Gol Linhas Aereas Inteligentes <GOLL4.SA><GOL.N> crashed after clipping wings with a Legacy business jet on Sept. 29, said Judge Murilo Mendes accepted its case and the accused will stand trial.

Lenita Violato, a spokeswoman for the federal prosecutor's office, said the Legacy pilots, Joseph Lepore and Jan Paladino, and three controllers are accused of unintentional crime of exposing aircraft to peril.

One controller faces intentional crime charges as prosecutors insist he knew the Legacy was at a wrong altitude. Violato could not say what jail terms the accused may be facing.

The two aircraft clipped wings at 37,000 feet (11,278 meters) over the Amazon rain forest. The Legacy, owned by ExcelAire charter company of Ronkonkoma, New York, landed safely.

The federal prosecutor has accused the Legacy pilots of flying at the wrong altitude and inadvertently deactivating the jet's detection and anti-collision device.

He also accused air traffic controllers of giving incomplete flight instructions and failing to try different frequencies when radio communication with the Legacy failed.

The judge wants the Americans to be interrogated in Brazil on Aug. 27. The two pilots were held in Brazil for more than two months during initial investigations. They were permitted to leave the country in December after agreeing to return if asked.

The pilots' lawyers were not available for comments.

Lepore and Paladino have said they were not guilty and complied with all regulations. Several foreign pilots' associations have expressed concern with Brazil's handling of the incident as a criminal case.

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