Air France Crash 2009 : Aviation bosses heckled as trial begins

Technology Technology: In The News
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Airbus and Air France deny involuntary manslaughter in the loss of the Airbus A330 flying from Rio de Janeiro to Paris in 2009. Investigators found the pilots had lost control when air-speed sensors froze, and all 228 people on board died.

Families of the deceased have campaigned for years for a trial. Relatives shouted protests as Air France Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Anne Rigail and Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury expressed their condolences during opening statements. Mr Faury told reporters “it will be a difficult trial” and that the company wanted to contribute to “truth and understanding”. Ms Rigail expressed “the deepest compassion” after telling the court Air France would never forget its worst ever accident. But Mr Faury’s remarks met cries of “shame” and “too little, too late”.

The Air France Flight 447 crashed hours after departing from Rio de Janeiro, having run into a high altitude thunderstorm. After a years-long search for the plane’s black boxes, investigators concluded that speed sensors on the plane failed and gave false readings, causing the plane to stall. The pilots then failed to follow correct procedure and lost control of the aircraft, which plunged 38,000ft (11,580 m) (1) into the ocean. The captain was on a break when problems began and investigators concluded that the co-pilots did not have the training to deal with malfunctioning equipment.

Judges had initially charged both the airline and manufacturer with manslaughter, but the prosecutor then recommended that only Air France should go on trial. In September 2019 charges against both were dropped, because there were not enough grounds to prosecute. That decision was challenged, and in May last year the Paris appeals court decided that both Air France and Airbus should face trial.

Both firms risk a maximum fine of €225,000 (£200,000; $218,500) in a trial expected to last several weeks.

(1) A long way to die … :anguished:

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Less than $1000 per person, cheap at twice the price. Gaoling a couple of the executives would concentrate their minds on safety more effectively than a fine.

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The harrowing final minutes of the Air France flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris that went into freefall and plunged into the Atlantic Ocean in 2009, killing all 228 people on board, will be examined as a landmark trial opens in Paris on Monday.

The crash on 1 June 2009 shook the world of air travel when flight AF447 disappeared from radars as it crossed the night sky during a storm over the Atlantic between Brazil and Senegal. The Airbus A330 had vanished without a mayday sign. Days later, debris was found in the ocean, but it took nearly two years to locate the bulk of the fuselage and recover the “black box” flight recorders. The unprecedented French search effort involved combing 17,000 sq km of ocean bed at depths of up to 13,000 feet (4,000 metres) (1) for over 22 months. The plane had been carrying 12 crew members and 216 passengers from 33 different nationalities, all of whom were killed.

As the plane approached the equator on its way to Paris, it had entered a so-called “intertropical convergence zone” that often produces volatile storms with heavy precipitation. As a storm buffeted the plane, ice crystals present at high altitudes had disabled the plane’s airspeed sensors, blocking speed and altitude information. The automatic pilot functions stopped working. The 205-tonne jet went into an aerodynamic stall and then plunged.

The trial will hear extensive detail from the final, fatal minutes in the cockpit as the confused captain and co-pilots fought to control the plane. “We’ve lost our speeds,” one co-pilot is heard saying in the flight recordings, before other indicators mistakenly show a loss of altitude, and a series of alarm messages appear on the cockpit screens. “I don’t know what’s happening,” one of the pilots says.

(1) That’s a long way down … :hushed:

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No updates yet.

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Since 2009??

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The title, tags and OP (containing a link) indicate that this thread (categorised as “In the News”) is about the current trial.

No updates to those are available yet.