Airbus and Air France are to stand trial over a 2009 air crash that killed all 228 people on board, following a decision by a French appeals court to overturn a previous decision not to press ahead with charges.
Air FranceRecife - The frigate Constituição arrives at the Port of Recife, transporting wreckage of the Air France Airbus A330 that was involved in an accident on 31 May 2009. Source: Agência Brasil
The frigate Constituição arrives at the Port of Recife, transporting wreckage of the Air France Airbus A330 that was involved in an accident on 31 May 2009. Source: Agência Brasil, CC BY 3.0 BR
On June 1, 2009, Air France flight 447, which was powered by a twin-engined Airbus A330, crashed into the Atlantic whilst en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris, after stalling during a thunderstorm. All 216 passengers and 12 crew members were killed, making the incident Air France's deadliest crash.
Last week, French appeals court judges said that the two companies should stand trial for "involuntary manslaughter", according to a court spokesperson. No date has been set for the trial yet.
In 2011, both companies were put under formal investigation for the same charge.
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The court decision overturns a previous ruling, in 2019, against a trial, which judges at the time blamed on human error, saying "accident is evidently due to a conjunction of elements that had never occurred before, and thus highlighted dangers that could not have been perceived before this accident."
In 2019, prosecutors recommended that only Air France be put on trial.
Danièle Lamy, President of Entraide et Solidarité AF447, the primary organisation for the victims' relatives, said: "It is an immense satisfaction to have the feeling of having finally been heard by the courts."
"We regret, however, that it took twelve long years to get there," she added.
Both companies said that they would appeal last week's ruling.
Air France, which is part of group Air France-KLM and 28% owned by the French state, said in a statement that it had "taken note of the decision" and that it "maintains that it did not commit any criminal fault in this accident, tragic as it was".
Airbus, one of the world's largest aircraft manufacturers, said: "The court decision that has been announced does not reflect in any way the conclusions of the investigation that led to the dismissal of the case."
The long-running case centres around the way in which the Air France pilots responded after losing speed readings when the pitot probes - sensors sitting outside the body of the plane - became blocked with ice, meaning the autopilot was switched off and the pilots took control manually.
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Prosecutors believe Air France should be held responsible for the inadequate training of its pilots, and that Airbus had "underestimated the seriousness of the failures" of the pitot probes, according to reports in Reuters.
A civil investigation conducted in 2012 by French air accident investigation office BEA emphasised the pitot probes' failure, the "crew’s failure to diagnose the stall situation and consequently a lack of inputs that would have made it possible to recover from it", cockpit problems and inadequate pilot training.
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