Trial begins against Air France, Airbus for 2009 Rio-Paris flight crash
This Monday begins the trial against Air France and Airbus, which are accused of involuntary manslaughter for the 2009 fatal crash of a plane en route to Paris from Rio de Janeiro that killed all 228 people on board.
Victims’ families and some aviation experts say the pilots were insufficiently trained to handle a loss of speed readings caused by crucial equipment freezing over in a storm.
→ French court fines Yemenia Airways for 2009 crash.
Flight AF 447 from Rio de Janeiro plunged into the Atlantic Ocean in the early hours of June 1, 2009, after entering a zone near the Equator known for strong turbulence.
The Airbus A330 was carrying 12 crew members and 216 passengers. It was the carrier’s deadliest crash.
It took nearly two years to locate the bulk of the fuselage and recover the “black box” flight recorders.
Air France and Airbus were charged as the inquiry progressed, with experts determining the crash resulted from mistakes made by pilots disorientated by so-called Pitot speed-monitoring tubes that had frozen over in thick cloud.
→ Ethiopian Airlines suspends pilots who fell asleep during a flight.
But investigating magistrates overseeing the case dropped the charges in 2019, a decision that infuriated victims’ families.
Prosecutors appealed the decision and in 2021 a Paris court ruled there was sufficient evidence for a trial to go ahead.
Ophelie Toulliou, who lost her brother on the flight, said it was essential “the truth come out, and that the sentences, if deserved, are handed down”.
“But the message is also to make companies that think they’re untouchable understand: ‘You’re like everyone else and if you make mistakes, they will be punished,” she told AFP.
The court will hear testimony from dozens of aviation experts and pilots over two months of hearings, and each company faces a maximum fine of 225,000 euros ($220,000).
There will also be analysis of the final minutes in the cockpit before the plane went into free-fall after entering a so-called “intertropical convergence zone” that often produces volatile storms with heavy precipitation.
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