Almost a decade after the fatal crash of June 1, 2009, which killed all 228 passengers and crew members on board, the trial against Airbus and Air France on charges of involuntary manslaughter has started before the Paris criminal court. The trial will run until December 8, 2022.
Shortly before the start of the trial, Airbus Chief Executive Guillaume Faury and Air France CEO Anne Rigail took their seats. According to a report by Reuters, the heads of both companies stood in silence in front of a Paris judge as officials read out the names of all 228 people who died when flight AF447 vanished during a thunderstorm from Rio de Janeiro to Paris on June 1, 2009.
The families of relatives demanding justice, representing about 33 nationalities including French, Brazilians and Germans, were present on the court premises.
Faury told reporters that it "will be a difficult trial" and that the company wanted to contribute to "truth and understanding". Rigail expressed deepest compassion by saying, " Air France would never forget its worst ever accident."
"Thirteen years we have been waiting for this day and we have prepared for a long time," Daniele Lamy, who lost her son in the crash, told Reuters.
A two-year search for the A330 black box has revealed that the pilots made an error in judgement while solving a problem of an iced-up speed sensor and lurched into a freefall without responding to the stall alarm. It was later found that lack of training contributed to the mishap.
Experts have claimed that the relative roles of pilot or sensor error will be key to the trial while Airbus has placed the blame on the pilots. Air France on the other hand said that confusing alarms overwhelmed the pilots.
Relatives also refused the maximum fine of $220,612 for each company. Undisclosed larger sums have also been made in compensation or out-of-court settlements, reports Reuters.
Alain Jakubowicz, the lawyer representing victims’ families said: “It's not the 225,000 euros that will worry them. It's their reputations...that's what's at stake for (Air France and Airbus). For us it is about something else, the truth...and ensuring lessons are learned from all these great catastrophes. This trial is about restoring a human dimension.”
"It's a trial where the victims must remain at the centre of debate. We don't want Airbus or Air France to turn this trial into a conference of engineers," said lawyer Sebastien Busy.
The Bureau of Inquiry and Analysis (BEA), a French government agency responsible for investigating aviation accidents and incidents, conducted a series of investigations and in July 2012 established the series of human and technical failures that led to the crash.
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.