New trial starts over France’s most deadly crash
Airbus and Air France are not guilty of murder at the beginning of a two -month new hearing on France’s worst weather disaster, 16 years after a jet of Paris hit the Atlantic, killing all passengers and crew.
A French Court, on June 1, 2009, disappeared from the radar screens from Rio de Janeiro on the road, Air France Flight 447 lost a historical public trial after the loss of both corporate men in 2023.
The prosecutors appealed the outcome and the families of most of the victims promised to fight to establish criminal mistakes in the technical expert evidence that will be reviewed at the Paris Appeal Court between the end of November.
A French appeal judge, the Airbus A330 passenger jet dived into the ocean during the night equivalent storm, while reading the names of 228 people who died in dozens of relatives came together and stood in a quiet mourning.
The chief executives of both the aircraft manufacturer and the airline praised the pain of the mourning families, but rejected any criminal responsibility for the accident.
Air France CEO Anne Rigail told her high -window courtroom, “Forelessly engraved in our memories,” he said.
Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury, the panel of the three judges “Any accident is failure.”
After a two -year study of the A330s, French researchers found that pilots misused the temporary data loss from the iced speed sensors and pushed them into a aerodynamic stop or free fall without responding to warnings.
However, more than ten years after that, the first trial, even before the accident between Air France and Airbus, shed light on the problems that grow with sensors that produce speed readings or discussions about “Pitot probes”.
Following nine -week evidence, a Paris judge listed four negligences by Airbus and chose one by an Air France, but found that they were not enough within the French Penal Code to establish a definite connection to jet loss during one midnight storm.
For families, prosecutors and lawyers will use the appeal for weeks to convince judges that it is a direct connection between the negligence and the accident.
Sebastien Ocak, a lawyer for one of the main associations of the relatives of the victims, said, “It is painful for families to reopen everything after 16 years, but it is important to continue and show that there is a criminal guilt.” He said.
“If you take one of these actions of negligence, then the accident would never be.”
