Prosecutor to appeal acquittal of Airbus, Air France in Rio-Paris crash case

A French public prosecutor is appealing a court decision that had cleared European planemaker Airbus and Air France of responsibility in France’s worst aviation disaster, the crash of a plane headed from Rio de Janeiro to Paris in June 2009 that killed all 228 people on board.

Ophélie Touillou, whose brother Nicolas died in the 2009 crash of flight AF447, speaks to journalists accompanied by lawyer Alain Jakubowicz (L) after the original verdict. © Michel Euler/AP

The Paris appeals court’s public prosecutor on Wednesday announced the decision to appeal the ruling of a lower court last month that found that, while Airbus and Air France had committed “acts of imprudence”, there was not a strong enough link between their failings and the accident to hold the companies responsible for the charge of involuntary manslaughter.

During the two-month public trial, prosecutors decided to ask for Airbus and Air France to be acquitted, saying there was not enough evidence to convict.

Families of those who died on flight AF447 argued that the companies ignored problems with a part of the plane’s navigation system, and had not trained pilots to deal with the ensuing emergency.

The decision to appeal a ruling that had been supported by a previous prosecutor is rare, but in a statement, prosecutor Remy Heitz said he would like the case to be considered by "a second level of jurisdiction” and using all “means of recourse authorised by the law”.

The appeal “was the last chance for the families of the victims”, said Alain Jakubowicz, a lawyer representing some 40 families and the victims’ support association.

A new case “leaves us with a lot of hope”.

(With AFP)