April 17, 2023, 9:25 AM
April 17, 2023, 9:25 AM
The French court acquitted on Monday the European manufacturer Airbus and the Air France company for the accident of the AF447 Rio-Paris flight in 2009, in which 228 people died, and for which they were tried in Paris for involuntary manslaughter.
Almost fourteen years after the catastrophe, the Paris court acquitted the two companies by judging that, although they committed “faults”, “no certain causal link could be demonstrated (…)” with the accident.
On June 1, 2009, flight AF447 from Rio de Janeiro to Paris crashed in the middle of the night while flying over the Atlantic Ocean, a few hours after takeoff. All 216 passengers and 12 crew on board died.
On board the plane, an A330 with registration F-GZCP, There were people of 33 nationalities: 61 French, 58 Brazilians and 28 Germans, as well as Italians (9), Spaniards (2) and an Argentine, among others.
The accident is the deadliest in the history of French airlines.
After a marathon procedure marked by conflicting opinions from the magistrates, and which took place from October 10 to December 8, The Prosecutor’s Office had requested that both companies be acquitted, considering that it was “impossible to prove” his guilt.
This requirement was not accepted by the civil partiessince in his opinion “he charges exclusively against the pilots, in favor of two multinationals,” criticized Danièle Lamy, president of the Entraide et Solidarité AF447 association, which represents the families of the victims.
Throughout the trial, the representatives of Airbus and Air France defended that the companies did not commit any criminal offense. His lawyers requested an acquittal, a “humanly difficult decision but technically and legally justified”, according to Airbus advice.
