A Paris appeals court found Air France and Airbus guilty of corporate manslaughter over the 2009 crash of flight AF447.
The crash took the lives of all 228 people on board and is considered the deadliest disaster in French aviation history.In its ruling handed down Thursday, the court reversed a ruling made last year that had cleared the companies. Both are now liable for a fine of up to €225,000 ($261,720).
The aircraft, an Airbus A330, had been flying from Rio de Janeiro to Paris on June 1, 2009, when it disappeared from radar screens while flying through an Atlantic storm. The wreckage was discovered after extensive searches covered almost 10,000 square kilometers of the ocean bottom.
The investigatory found that the aircraft’s speed sensors were blocked by the ice crystals that led the autopilot to disengage.
The poorly trained crew couldn’t respond to the situation and sent the plane into an aerodynamic stall from which they couldn’t recover.
Due to this, the jet plunged 38,000 ft into the sea in just three and a half minutes.
Both companies were declared “solely and entirely responsible” for the accident by the court due to their failure to provide proper safety measures.
The relatives of the deceased assembled outside the courthouse to witness the decision made. Some pointed out that the fine paid amounted to only a few minutes’ worth of profit for any of the two airlines. Nevertheless, being found guilty is a huge black mark against them.
Both Airbus and Air France have denied the fault throughout the 17-year legal battle.
