PARIS—France’s public prosecutor has launched an appeal 10 days after a Paris court verdict cleared Air France and Airbus of involuntary-manslaughter charges over the 2009 crash of Air France Flight 447.
Flight AF447, an Airbus A330-200, was en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris on June 1, 2009, when around 4 hr. after takeoff and amid stormy weather, it crashed into the Atlantic killing all 228 passengers and crew on board.
Lawyers representing the families of some of the 228 victims had been calling for a trial for many years. The court process that finished April 17 had begun in late 2022. The court found that while errors had been made by both Airbus and Air France, “no certain link of causality” could be established.
The questions surrounding responsibility for the crash center on the pilots’ actions in the minutes before the accident and on their reactions to the faulty readings that were displayed as a result of problems with the aircraft’s pitot tubes.
In July 2012, following a two-year search for the aircraft’s flight data recorders, an investigation by France’s Bureau d’Enquetes et d’Analyses (BEA) concluded the flight crew had become disorientated and reacted incorrectly to faulty readings from the pitot tubes, which had become blocked by ice.
French pilots’ union SNPL France ALPA said it was “profoundly relieved” at the announcement of an appeal.
“The public prosecutor’s appeal will allow the Court of Appeal to examine once again the responsibilities of Airbus and Air France in this tragedy, guaranteeing the victims’ loved ones access to a second hearing, which is a fundamental right,” the union says.
Air France declined to comment on the news that there would be a new appeal. Airbus says it “takes note” of the decision but has no further comment at this stage.
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