Air France, Airbus convicted over 2009 Atlantic crash
A Paris appeals court has found Air France and Airbus guilty of corporate manslaughter over the 2009 crash of Flight AF447, which killed all 228 people on board, Qazinform News Agency correspondent reports.
The court on Thursday ordered each company to pay the maximum fine of €225,000. The ruling reversed a 2023 lower court decision that had cleared both companies of the charges.
Relatives of passengers and crew attended the hearing after a long legal process over the Rio de Janeiro to Paris flight, which disappeared over the Atlantic Ocean on June 1, 2009.
Flight AF447, an Airbus A330, was carrying 216 passengers and 12 crew members from 33 countries. It vanished from radar between Brazil and Senegal during stormy weather, hours after leaving Rio.
The aircraft’s black boxes were found two years later, after a deep-sea search. Investigators later concluded that the pilots mishandled a loss of reliable airspeed readings caused by iced sensors, pushing the plane into a stall before it descended into the ocean.
Prosecutors also pointed to alleged failures by the manufacturer and the airline, including shortcomings in training and insufficient follow-up after earlier similar incidents.
The crash triggered a major search operation involving Brazilian forces and French nuclear submarines. The first bodies were recovered about a week after the aircraft went missing.
Both Air France and Airbus have denied wrongdoing. Further appeals could still be filed, shifting the case to legal questions after the appeals court reviewed the evidence in a new trial.
Earlier, Qazinform reported that Roman Blachshishin, Head of Airbus Kazakhstan, gave an exclusive interview to Qazinform News Agency on the current fleet, key areas of cooperation, and future development plans.
