Air France, Airbus face trial over fatal 2009 Rio-Paris plane disaster
Air France and aircraft maker Airbus go on trial in Paris on Monday on charges of involuntary manslaughter – 13 years after an A330 jet plunged into the Atlantic on a flight from Rio de Janeiro, killing all 228 people on board.
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Flight 447 vanished from radar screens after it stalled during a storm as it was flying to Paris from the Brazillian city of Rio de Janeiro on 1 June 2009.
It was carrying 12 crew members and 216 passengers, including 61 French citizens.
Debris was found in the following days but it took nearly two years to locate the bulk of the fuselage and recover the "black box" flight recorders.
Denials
With the two companies still denying responsibility for the disaster, the families of those who died are hoping the trial will finally yield some answers.
French investigators found that pilots had mishandled the temporary loss of data from iced-up sensors and pushed the jet into an aerodynamic stall or freefall.
The trial, which runs until 8 December, focuses on alleged insufficient pilot training and a defective speed monitoring probe, which was replaced on planes around the world in the months following the accident.
The BEA accident agency disclosed that Air France had expressed concerns about increased icing incidents before the tragedy.
Historic
The trial also marks the first time French companies, rather than individuals, have been put on trial for "involuntary manslaughter" following an air crash.
Investigating magistrates overseeing the case dropped the charges in 2019, attributing the crash mainly to pilot error.
That decision infuriated victims' families, and in 2021 a Paris appeals court ruled there was sufficient evidence to allow a trial to go ahead.
The maximum fine for either company is 225,000 euros.
(With newswires)
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