The companies were convicted over the crash of Air France Flight 447 in 2009, which killed all 228 people on board
Air France and Airbus have been found guilty of manslaughter following a devastating plane crash in 2009 which resulted in the deaths of 228 individuals.
Both the carrier and the plane maker were convicted of corporate manslaughter in connection with the tragedy. The aircraft, Air France flight 447, was en route from Rio de Janeiro in Brazil to Paris when it plunged into the Atlantic Ocean.
Within five days of the disaster, the Brazilian Navy retrieved the first two victims’ remains along with debris from the aircraft. It is believed the passenger jet went into a stall during a storm, resulting in the loss of everyone on board.
Among the deceased were three young Irish women. Jane Deasy, Eithne Walls, and Aisling Butler from Ireland were all passengers on the flight. The women, all medical professionals, were returning home following a holiday in Brazil.
Family members of some of those who perished, including French, Brazilian and German citizens, assembled as the appeals court ruling was delivered on Wednesday, reports Belfast Live.
Air France chief executive Anne Rigail had previously stated the tragedy is “forever engraved in our memories”, while Airbus chief executive Guillaume Faury informed judges that “any accident is a failure”.
Both corporations have been instructed to pay the maximum penalty of €225,000 ($261,720; £194,500) each. Nevertheless, certain families of the victims described the sum as a symbolic sanction.
The ruling marks the latest development in a 17-year legal battle between two of France’s most prominent companies, with the case leaving an indelible mark on the aviation industry.
In its wake, regulations governing airspeed sensors and pilot training procedures were overhauled. An official inquiry concluded that a combination of factors contributed to the catastrophic crash.
Ice had rendered the aircraft’s pitot tubes inoperable, cutting off vital speed and altitude data. With the autopilot disengaged, the crew assumed manual control, but were working with faulty navigational information, according to The Mirror.
This caused the aircraft to enter an aerodynamic stall, its nose tilting upwards before it plummeted into the ocean. The wreckage and the flight’s black box recorders, lying at depths exceeding 13,000 feet (approximately 4,000 metres) beneath the ocean’s surface, took nearly two years to locate.
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