By Tim Hepher
PARIS (Reuters) -An eight-week Paris trial over the 2009 crash of an Air France jet with the loss of all 228 passengers and crew reached closing stages on Thursday as France’s national carrier and Airbus battle charges of corporate manslaughter. On Wednesday, prosecutors urged the Paris Appeals Court to reverse the decision of a lower tribunal that had cleared both firms over the crash, in which an A330 plunged into the Atlantic en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris during a tropical storm. French safety investigators found after recovering black boxes two years later that pilots had responded clumsily to a sensor icing problem that left the plane temporarily unable to calculate its airspeed, before lurching into a stall. But the trial focused on earlier problems with the same type of sensor as well as alleged shortcomings in data-sharing and training that prosecutors say indirectly caused the crash. In closing arguments, Air France paid tribute to bereaved families and denied claims that the crew on flight AF447 was poorly trained in dealing with stalls or emergencies at high altitude. Airbus was due to wrap up its defence on Thursday.
Judges are now expected to take months to reach a verdict. Whatever the outcome, experts say there are likely to be further appeals, potentially dragging the process out for years.
PROSECUTORS CALL FOR MAXIMUM FINE Hearings took place in a high-windowed courtroom where some of France’s most dramatic chapters have been written including the trials of Nazi puppet Philippe Petain and the authors of a failed 1961 military coup known as the Algiers putsch. Now, it is the country’s aviation establishment that has been placed under scrutiny as two of France’s most emblematic state-backed companies fight for their reputations. In closing remarks on Wednesday, prosecutor Rodolphe Juy-Birmann accused both companies of acts of negligence that led to the crash and directed particularly harsh criticism at Airbus, which he accused of drip-feeding information to the court. Airbus said it had done its utmost to help the court understand the crash. The prosecutor called for the maximum corporate manslaughter fine for both companies, which is just 225,000 euros ($260,640) each. Both companies have repeatedly denied the charges. Relatives hugged each other after the five-hour prosecution closing, which some described as cathartic in contrast with angry scenes during the earlier trial. “In 16 years this is the first time we have been treated with respect and humanity,” said victims’ association president Daniele Lamy, who lost her son on AF447.
Air France lawyer Francois Saint-Pierre rejected claims by relatives’ lawyers that the airline and Airbus had forged a “non-aggression pact” and said the precise cause of one of the industry’s most debated accidents remained a mystery.
In 2012, France’s accident agency said startled Air France crew had mishandled their response to a temporary loss of speed data from iced-up sensors, then failed to recognise the plunging jet had stalled, or lost lift, despite repeated alarms. The agency also pinpointed gaps in training and unclear displays.
By contrast, prosecutors cleared pilots of blame to focus on alleged deeper shortcomings inside the planemaker and airline, without which they said the crash could not have happened. Those included failing to follow up on earlier similar incidents.
To prove manslaughter, prosecutors must not only establish negligence but demonstrate how it triggered the disaster. The lower court ruled in 2023 that both companies had been negligent but that no causal link had been established. ($1 = 0.8633 euros)
(Reporting by Tim Hepher. Editing by Mark Potter)
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