Airbus, Air France found guilty of manslaughter over 2009 Atlantic crash

PARIS: Paris’ appeals court Thursday found Air France and Airbus guilty of involuntary manslaughter over the 2009 crash of a Rio-Paris flight that killed 228 people, the worst disaster in France’s aviation history.

The Paris Court of Appeal ruled that the French flag carrier and Europe’s leading aerospace manufacturer were “solely and entirely responsible for the crash of flight AF447,” ordering each to pay 225,000 euros ($261,000) - the maximum fine for corporate manslaughter.

While the penalties are symbolic, the ruling will be seen as significant reputational damage for both companies.

On June 1, 2009, Air France Flight AF447, travelling from Rio de Janeiro to Paris, was cruising over the Atlantic when the pilots lost control of the aircraft, causing it to plunge into the ocean.

There were no survivors among the 216 passengers and 12 crew on board the Airbus-built A330 aircraft, the dead including 72 French nationals and 58 Brazilians.

The companies, who have denied any criminal liability, blaming pilot error, had been acquitted by a lower court in 2023.

That verdict was a blow to the victims’ families, who said they were outraged by the court’s decision to clear the companies of the charges.

Although prosecutors at the time had asked for the charges to be dropped, they had subsequently lodged the appeal to allow “the full potential of the legal appeals procedure” to play out.

The eight-week appeal trial ran between September and December last year.

In November, prosecutor Rodolphe Juy-Birmann lambasted the behaviour of Air France and Airbus over the years.

“Nothing has come of it — not a single word of sincere comfort,” he said.

“It’s a rock-solid defence. One word sums up this whole circus: indecency.”

Lawyers for the families have argued that both companies were aware of the problem with pitot tubes, which are used to measure flight speed, and that the pilots were not trained to deal with such a high-altitude emergency.

The court heard how a malfunction with the tubes, which became blocked with ice crystals during a mid-Atlantic storm, caused alarms to sound in the plane’s cockpit and the autopilot system to switch off.

Experts highlighted how, after the instrument failed, the pilots put the plane into a climb that caused the aircraft to stall and then crash into the ocean.