Airbus and Air France were acquitted for the Rio-Paris flight accident in 2009

The french justice acquitted the European manufacturer on Monday Airbus and the airline air Francedue to the flight accident Rio-Paris in 2009 that caused the death of 228 people, and for which they were tried for manslaughter.

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Almost fourteen years after the catastrophe of the flight AF447the court of Paris judged that, although the two companies committed “faults“, I don’t know “could demonstrate (…) no sure causal link” with the accident.

Shortly after 1:30 p.m. (11:30 a.m. GMT), the relatives of the victims, the teams of Air France and Airbus and journalists filled the large audience hall.

The announcement of the acquittal caused some civil parties to rise up in surprise, while the president continued his reading in deathly silence.

French lawyer Alain Jakubowicz speaks to the press at the courthouse in Paris April 17, 2023 after the trial of Air France and aircraft manufacturer Airbus over the crash of the Rio-Paris Air France A330 flight on June 1, 2009 in which 228 people died. – On April 17, 2023, a French court acquitted Air France and aircraft manufacturer Airbus in a lawsuit over the 2009 crash of a Rio-Paris flight that killed 228 people. (Photo by Bertrand GUAY / AFP) (BERTRAND GUAY /)

On June 1, 2009, the flight AF447 of Rio de Janeiro to Paris crashed in the middle of the night while flying over the Atlantic Ocean, a few hours after takeoff. All 216 passengers and 12 crew on board died.

On board the plane, a A330 with license plate F-GZCPthere were people from 33 nationalities: 61 French, 58 Brazilian and 28 German, as well as Italians (9), Spaniards (2) and an Argentine, among others.

The accident is the deadliest in the history of French airlines.

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The companies committed “recklessness”

In the days after the accident, the first remains of the plane and the bodies. But the fuselage was not located until two years later, at a depth of 3,900 meters.

The black boxes confirmed that the pilots, disoriented by a failure in Pitot velocity probes in the middle of the night near the equator, they were unable to stop the fall of the device, which occurred in less than five minutes.

Investigations showed that in the months prior to the accident Incidents of similar probes, whose model was superseded worldwide after the accident, had multiplied.

The court considered that Airbus committed “four imprudences or negligence”especially not having replaced the models of Pitot probes called “AA”which seemed to freeze more frequently, on planes A330 and A340and the fact of having “withheld information”.

Journalists report on the first wreckage and objects of the Air France A330 plane, flight AF447, lost mid-flight over the Jene 1st Atlantic Ocean and recovered from the sea, at the hangar of the airbase, in Recife, northeastern Brazil, on 12 June 2009. Whether or not the black boxes from Air France Flight 447 have been found, the crash has shown that new technology is needed to record the last moments of a flight in real time, an aviation expert argues. AFP PHOTO/Mauricio LIMA (Photo by MAURICIO LIMA / AFP) (MAURICIO LIMA/)

Air France committed two “imprudences”, relating to the modalities of disseminating an informative note addressed to its pilots on the failures of the probes.

However, according to the court, in criminal matters “a probable causal relationship is not sufficient to establish a crime. In this case, as they were faults, no causal link with the accident could be demonstrated.”

During the process, which took place from October 10 to December 8, the court heard experts, gendarmes, pilots, air control authorities and relatives of the victimsand tried to understand the reactions of the crew in the cockpit, as well as the dangerousness of probe failures.

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Fourteen years of procedure

The verdict created great expectations, after a marathon procedure marked by conflicting opinions from the magistrates.

Although the investigating judges dismissed the case in 2019, the relatives of the victims and the unions of pilots appealed and, in May 2021, the courts sent both companies to trial for involuntary manslaughter.

At the end of the process, the Prosecutor’s Office requested that both companies be acquitted, considering that it was “impossible to prove” his guilt.

Authorities said the bodies and debris pulled from ocean waters off the coast of Brazil will be brought to the mainland coastal city of Recife, where investigators hope to identify the remains by checking dental records and DNA samples provided. by relatives. AFP PHOTO/Evaristo SA (Photo by Evaristo SA / AFP) (EVARISTO SA/)

a requisition “that the civil parties did not accept” since it loaded “exclusively against the pilots, in favor of two multinationals”, had criticized Daniele Lamypresident of the association Entrance and Solidarity AF447which represents the families of the victims.

Throughout the trial, representatives of Airbus and of air France They defended that the companies did not commit any criminal offense.

His lawyers considered that the acquittal was a “humanly difficult decision but technically and legally justified”, according to the council of Airbus.

Source: Elcomercio