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| Airbus and Air France Acquitted Over 2009 Rio-Paris Crash | Airbus and Air France Acquitted Over 2009 Rio-Paris Crash |
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| Airbus and Air France were acquitted of manslaughter charges by a French court on Monday over their role in the 2009 crash of a flight from Rio to Paris that plunged into the Atlantic Ocean, killing all 228 people on board. | Airbus and Air France were acquitted of manslaughter charges by a French court on Monday over their role in the 2009 crash of a flight from Rio to Paris that plunged into the Atlantic Ocean, killing all 228 people on board. |
| The verdict was a bitter disappointment for the families of the victims, who had battled for over a decade to bring Airbus, the aircraft manufacturer, and Air France, the main French airline, to trial. | |
| But the ruling did not come as a surprise. Prosecutors had said at the end of the trial, after reviewing all of the evidence, that they would not seek convictions, arguing that there was not enough evidence to hold the companies criminally liable. | But the ruling did not come as a surprise. Prosecutors had said at the end of the trial, after reviewing all of the evidence, that they would not seek convictions, arguing that there was not enough evidence to hold the companies criminally liable. |
| The decision left families of the victims disheartened and infuriated. At the trial, which took place between October and December of last year, some of them angrily stormed out of the courtroom after the prosecutors announced their finding. | |
| Both companies had repeatedly insisted that they were not responsible for the accident, which was the deadliest in Air France’s history. No individual executives or managers were on trial, and Airbus and Air France were each facing a fine of 225,000 euros, or about $218,300 — a negligible figure compared to their bottom lines. Families of the victims have already received financial compensation. | Both companies had repeatedly insisted that they were not responsible for the accident, which was the deadliest in Air France’s history. No individual executives or managers were on trial, and Airbus and Air France were each facing a fine of 225,000 euros, or about $218,300 — a negligible figure compared to their bottom lines. Families of the victims have already received financial compensation. |
| But a guilty verdict carried the potential to seriously hurt the reputation of the two aviation heavyweights. Chief executives for Airbus and Air France, who testified when the proceedings opened in October, were angrily heckled by some of the plaintiffs with cries of “Shame on you!” | But a guilty verdict carried the potential to seriously hurt the reputation of the two aviation heavyweights. Chief executives for Airbus and Air France, who testified when the proceedings opened in October, were angrily heckled by some of the plaintiffs with cries of “Shame on you!” |
| The plane crashed on June 1, 2009, when Air France Flight 447, an Airbus A330, was caught in an overnight thunderstorm several hours after leaving Rio de Janeiro for Paris. Ice crystals threw off the plane’s airspeed sensors and its autopilot disconnected. | |
| Investigators later determined that the flight’s bewildered pilots had faced a barrage of alarms and conflicting data from instruments in the cockpit. In a period that did not even last five minutes, they struggled to regain control of the plane as it stalled, went into a free fall, and slammed into the ocean between Brazil and West Africa. | |
| None of the 216 passengers and 12 crew members survived. The victims included dancers, doctors, engineers and executives from nations throughout Europe as well as from Africa, Asia, Canada, South America and the United States. Some were on business trips, others on vacation. Eight were children. | |
| Black boxes from the crash were only recovered from the ocean floor two years later, after lying at a depth of over 10,000 feet. | |
| In 2019, after years of tortuous investigations and dueling expert reports, magistrates handling the inquiry in France attributed the crash mainly to pilot error and decided to dismiss the case against Airbus and Air France. But a French court overruled the decision in 2021, ordering the two companies to stand trial. | |
| Plaintiffs had accused Air France of insufficiently training its pilots on how to react when the airspeed sensors malfunctioned. They had also accused Airbus of underestimating the threat to safety in the event of failure by the sensors involved, which are known as Pitot tubes — small cylinders that sit outside the body of the plane to calculate airspeed. | |
| The Pitot tubes had malfunctioned because of ice on other flights before the crash, and Airbus was accused of failing to urgently inform airlines and their crews about the problem. The sensors were replaced on Airbus planes worldwide after the accident. | |
| A procession of experts — pilots, police officers, air traffic authorities and other aeronautic specialists — testified during the proceedings, delving deeply into the intricacies of flight safety, airplane piloting and aviation regulations over the course of two months. | |
| Prosecutors at the trial ultimately concluded that the pilots had failed to overcome their stress and surprise after the sensors malfunctioned, and they argued that there was no proof of criminal negligence on the companies’ part. |