A Paris appeals court found Airbus and Air France guilty of corporate manslaughter over the 2009 Rio-Paris crash that killed 228 passengers and crew. Relatives of victims gathered after a 17-year legal process to determine responsibility for France’s worst air disaster. The court ordered each company to pay the maximum fine of €225,000 following prosecutors’ requests during an eight-week trial. A lower court had cleared both companies in 2023, and both have repeatedly denied the charges. The maximum fines were criticized as token penalties, but family groups viewed a conviction as recognition. Further appeals to France’s highest court were expected. Investigators later reported the crew mishandled an issue involving iced-up sensors, while prosecutors emphasized alleged failures in training and follow-up within both companies.
"A Paris appeals court on Wednesday found Airbus and Air France guilty of corporate manslaughter over the 2009 Rio-Paris plane crash that killed 228 passengers and crew in France's worst air disaster. The verdict is the latest milestone in a legal marathon involving two of France's most emblematic companies and relatives of the mainly French, Brazilian and German victims. Relatives of some of the 228 passengers and crew who died when the Airbus A330 vanished in darkness during an Atlantic storm gathered to hear the verdict after their 17-year legal battle to pinpoint blame for France's worst air disaster."
"The court ordered the companies to pay the maximum fine for corporate manslaughter, €225,000 each, following the request of prosecutors during 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."
"In 2012, BEA 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. Prosecutors, however, focused their attention on alleged failures inside both the planemaker and airline. Those included poor training and failing to follow up on earlier incidents. To prove manslaughter, prosecutors needed not only to establish that the companies were guilty of negligence but pull the threads together to demonstrate how this caused the crash."
Read at Irish Independent
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