Do Airbus and Air France have criminal responsibility in the 2009 crash of the Rio-Paris flight?
The Paris Criminal Court rules this Monday, April 17, fourteen years after the disaster which killed 228 people.
Tried for manslaughter, the European manufacturer and the French company, who contest any fault in connection with the accident, incur a fine of 225,000 euros.
But the stakes of the decision go far beyond this sanction.
On June 1, 2009, flight AF447 between Rio de Janeiro and Paris crashed in the middle of the night in the Atlantic, a few hours after takeoff, causing the death of its 216 passengers and 12 crew members.
In the A330 registered F-GZCP were people of 33 nationalities, including 72 French and 58 Brazilians.
This is the deadliest accident in the history of French airlines.
The first debris, as well as bodies, were found in the following days.
But the wreck was not located until two years later after long searches, between underwater high reliefs, at a depth of 3,900 meters.
The black boxes confirmed the starting point of the accident: the icing of the Pitot airspeed probes while the plane was cruising, in the difficult weather zone of the “
Doldrums
”, near the equator.
Destabilized by the consequences of this failure, one of the pilots adopted an upward trajectory and, in the incomprehension, the three crew members failed to regain control of the plane which stalled and hit the ocean only 4 minutes and 23 seconds later.
Read alsoAF 447: the last words of the crew
Relaxation required
Investigations showed that similar probe incidents had multiplied in the months preceding the accident.
Has Air France sufficiently trained and informed its crews?
Did Airbus underestimate the seriousness of the problem and alert companies too little?
These questions were thoroughly debated during the two months of the trial, from October 10 to December 8.
At the time of the requisitions, surprising the hearing, the prosecution requested the release of the two companies, considering that their guilt was "
impossible to demonstrate
".
An indictment "
that the civil parties did not accept, exclusively against the pilots and in favor of two multinationals
", castigated Danièle Lamy, president of the association Entraide et Solidarité AF447, which represents the relatives of the victims.
“
What we hope, what we expect, is that the court will finally deliver an impartial decision and condemn Airbus and Air France, the culprits of the negligence and breaches.
This is what we have been fighting for for almost fourteen years
,” she said.
The councils of the companies did not wish to speak before the judgment.
Their lawyers had pleaded for release, a “
humanly difficult decision, but technically and legally justified
”, according to the advice of Airbus.
Read alsoAF 447: what the pilot did in Rio de Janeiro
Procedure-marathon
During the hearing, the court questioned experts, gendarmes, pilots and air traffic control authorities to try to understand the reactions of the crew in the cockpit but also the dangerousness, at the time, of the various Pitot probes.
After the disaster, the model installed on the Airbus of flight AF447 was replaced worldwide.
The drama, which marked the pilot community, led to other technical modifications and reinforced training in stalling as well as in the stress of the crews.
The debates were very technical, sometimes tense between the civil parties and the representatives of Airbus, accused of having "
despised
" the victims - which they defended themselves.
For five half-days, some relatives also spoke, paying tribute to their deceased and describing the irreparable damage of the accident on their lives.
On Monday, the court could condemn the two companies, sanction only one and not the other, or even release the two companies.
This long-awaited decision comes after a marathon procedure, which has already seen twists and turns.
After a decade of expertise, the prosecution had requested the dismissal of the only company Air France and the investigating judges had dismissed the case on August 29, 2019. The families of the victims and the pilots' unions had appealed, as the public prosecutor's office: the public prosecutor's office had then demanded the dismissal of the two companies and, on May 12, 2021, the investigating chamber had followed it, ordering the trial.