An appeal began in Paris 16 years after the 2009 crash of Air France Flight AF447 that killed 228 people, with French prosecutors holding companies jointly responsible, lawyers and prosecutors said.
Investigators say the Airbus A330’s speed sensors froze, causing cockpit displays to show incorrect airspeed and the autopilot to disconnect. The pilots became confused and did not react properly, investigators said, and the aircraft lost too much speed and fell out of the sky.
French authorities say the pilots were not properly trained to handle that type of situation and that Airbus had known for some time about problems with the speed sensors and had not done enough to fix them.
The companies were prosecuted in 2022 for “manslaughter without intent.” A court later ruled that both Airbus and Air France had acted negligently, but the judge said it went too far to connect that negligence directly to the crash.
In the appeal, lawyers for the bereaved families are seeking to prove that connection. Lawyer Sebastien Busy, who is assisting the largest collective of bereaved families, told Reuters it was painful to reopen old wounds sixteen years after the air disaster. “But it is necessary to prove guilt,” he said.
Flight AF447 was en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris in 2009 when it hit severe weather and crashed into the Atlantic Ocean from an altitude of about 10 kilometres. The aircraft was carrying 216 passengers and 12 crew members.
Nearly two years later, the plane’s wreckage and the flight recorders were found at the bottom of the ocean near northeastern Brazil. Bodies of dozens of occupants had been recovered earlier.
If found guilty, the companies could be fined up to 225,000 euros each, prosecutors say. Prosecutors say they are not doing it for the money, but because they want closure for the next of kin.
