Airbus and Air France have been found guilty of corporate manslaughter in the 2009 Rio-Paris plane crash that killed 228 passengers and crew in France’s worst air disaster.
A Paris appeals court on Wednesday ordered both companies to pay a maximum fine of €225,000 each, marking a significant milestone in a 17-year legal battle.
Relatives of the passengers and crew who died when the Airbus A330 vanished in darkness during an Atlantic storm gathered to hear the verdict, following the eight-week trial.
In 2023, a lower court had cleared the two companies, both of which have repeatedly denied the charges.
The maximum fines, amounting to just a few minutes of either company’s revenue, have been widely dismissed as a token penalty. But family groups have said a conviction would represent a recognition of their plight.
Flight AF447 vanished from radar screens on June 1, 2009, with people from 33 nationalities on board. The black boxes were recovered two years later after a deep-sea search.
In 2012, crash investigators found the plane’s crew had pushed their jet into a stall, chopping lift from under the wings, after mishandling a problem to do with iced-up sensors.
More to follow…
