The court’s decision was eagerly awaited. Almost fourteen years after the crash of the Rio-Paris flight which caused the death of 228 people on 1is June 2009, the Paris Criminal Court acquitted this Monday, April 17 Airbus and Air France. The court exonerated the two companies, judging that, if “mistakes” had been committed, “no certain causal link” with the accident had “could be demonstrated”.
“AF447: tracking down the Rio-Paris flight”, an abyssal investigation
For the court, Airbus committed “four imprudences or negligence”in particular not having had the model of Pitot probes called « AA »which seemed to freeze more often, on the A330-A340 fleet, and the fact of having demonstrated “retention of information” compared to companies. Air France committed two “wrongful recklessness”related to the methods of distribution of an information note addressed to its pilots on the failure of the probes.
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Nevertheless, according to the court, on the criminal level, “a probable causal link is not sufficient to characterize an offence. In this case, with regard to the faults, no certain causal link could be demonstrated with the accident..
During the trial which took place from October 10 to December 8, the prosecution had requested the release, considering that the guilt of the companies was “impossible to demonstrate”.
Fault in speed sensors
The 1is June 2009, flight AF447 from Rio de Janeiro to Paris crashed into the Atlantic in the middle of the night, a few hours after takeoff, causing the death of its 216 passengers and 12 crew members. On board the A330 were people of 33 nationalities, including 72 French and 58 Brazilians. This crash is the deadliest in the history of French airlines.
The first debris was found in the days following the crash. But the wreckage was only located two years later, after a long search, at 3,900 meters deep.
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Since the Rio-Paris crash, “pilot training has been modified” to avoid a new tragedy
The black boxes confirmed that the crash was caused by icing on the Pitot airspeed probes as the plane flew at high altitude in the harsh doldrums weather zone near the equator.
Destabilized by the consequences of this breakdown, one of the co-pilots adopted an upward trajectory and, in the incomprehension, the three pilots were unable to regain control of the aircraft which stalled and struck the ocean 4 minutes and 23 seconds later. Investigations showed that similar probe incidents had multiplied in the months preceding the accident.
