Air France and Airbus were cleared of manslaughter charges on Monday.
Recordings from the cockpit of the crashed flight AF447 paint a dramatic situation.
Paris/Munich - A Paris court on Monday (April 17) acquitted Air France and Airbus of negligent homicide charges in connection with the crash of flight AF447 in 2009.
The crash killed all 228 people on board the plane.
When the verdict was announced on Monday, the court said that mistakes had been made.
However, "no clear connection" with the accident could have been proven.
The families of the passengers had fought for years to come to terms with Air France's worst aviation disaster.
This happened in the cockpit of flight AF447
It took only four minutes from the moment the pilots noticed the speedometer failure to the crash.
The evaluation of the flight recorder found two years later brings the last moments in the cockpit frighteningly close.
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A piece of wreckage from the crashed Air France AF 447 plane is recovered by a Brazilian Navy rescue team in the Atlantic.
© picture alliance/dpa
The French authority for the investigation of aircraft accidents later documented and published the exchange of words between the pilot and the two co-pilots on the night of the accident.
Accordingly, the mood in the cockpit was initially relaxed, despite some turbulence.
At 02:31 a.m. Central European Time, the pilot pointed out to one of the two co-pilots that they were flying over the equator with a moody remark: "You get it, I assume?" - "Yes, I thought so."
Air France plane in turbulence
Just under half an hour later, the pilot says goodbye to his rest break.
"Okay, I'm off," he says.
One of the two co-pilots takes control.
The plane steers into turbulence.
"We'd better let them know at the back (in the cabin)", says the co-pilot at 04:06.
"Pull a bit to the left," says the other.
Three minutes later there was obvious confusion in the cockpit.
Alarm tones can be heard.
"What's going on?" asks one.
"The speedometer is no longer correct," remarks the other.
The autopilot disengages.
The co-pilot steers the machine steeply upwards.
At 04.11 he admits: "I no longer have control over the aircraft." The door to the cockpit opens.
“What are you doing there?” asks the pilot, who comes back from his break.
"We don't understand anything anymore, we've tried everything," is the answer.
The panic of the three can only be guessed at.
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Lawyer for the association "AF447 Help and Solidarity": Almost 14 years after the crash, Air France and Airbus are cleared of the suspicion of negligent homicide.
© Michel Euler/dpa
Confusion in the cockpit before the crash
"Am I going down now?" - "No, you're going up further." The brief dialogue makes it clear that the three are overwhelmed by the situation.
You can no longer tell whether the aircraft is climbing or descending.
Alarm signals continue to be heard in the background.
"Come on, keep pulling up." - "We'll slam down.
That's impossible.
What's going on?” At this point, the machine is almost in free fall.
The co-pilot had pulled her up so steeply that the stall had occurred.
Survivors of the AF447 victims had to wait a long time for news of the death
At 04:14 the pilot can be heard one last time: "Ten degrees".
Then the machine hits the sea surface almost horizontally.
Investigators will later suspect that the passengers probably didn't notice much of the drama.
Many of them hadn't been wearing their seat belts.
They hadn't heard any scary announcements.
According to the experts, they died immediately when they hit the Atlantic - a small consolation for the bereaved, who had to wait an agonizingly long time for the official death message after the crash.
(rowa with AFP)
List of rubrics: © picture alliance/dpa