Paris: Air France Airbus manslaughter convictions were issued Thursday over the 2009 crash of Flight AF447, which killed all 228 people on board.
The Paris Appeals Court found the airline and aircraft maker “solely and entirely responsible” for the disaster. The ruling overturned an April 2023 acquittal after an eight-week trial.
Flight AF447 was flying from Rio de Janeiro to Paris on June 1, 2009, when the Airbus A330 stalled during a storm and plunged into the Atlantic Ocean.
All 12 crew members and 216 passengers died. The crash remains the deadliest incident in French aviation history.
The court ordered Air France and Airbus to pay €225,000 each, the maximum corporate fine under French law. Some victims’ families called the amount a token penalty.
Daniele Lamy, president of the AF447 victims’ association, praised the verdict. She said the justice system had finally recognised families’ pain after a collective tragedy.
Airbus said it acknowledged the judgment but would seek a judicial review. The company plans to appeal to France’s highest court, the Court of Cassation.
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Both Airbus and Air France had denied the charges throughout the long legal case. During closing arguments, deputy prosecutors called the companies’ conduct “unacceptable.”
Search teams located the wreckage after scanning 10,000 square kilometres of seabed. However, crews recovered the black boxes only in 2011 after months of deep-sea work.
The victims came from 33 countries, including France, Brazil and Germany. The passenger list also included British, Irish and American nationals.
