Appeal Court Upholds Yemenia Airways Manslaughter Conviction

Yemenia Airways was convicted on appeal on Tuesday, September 10 in Paris, for manslaughter and involuntary injury, fifteen years after the crash in 2009 of one of its planes off the coast of the Comoros, which caused the death of 152 people.

The capital’s Court of Appeal upheld the judgment of September 14, 2022, which had fined the company the maximum fine provided for by law at the time of the events, namely 225,000 euros.

On the night of June 29-30, 2009, while preparing to land at Moroni airport, the capital of the Comoros, Yemenia flight 626 crashed into the Indian Ocean, killing 141 passengers, including 65 French nationals, and 11 crew members. Only a 12-year-old girl survived, clinging to a piece of aircraft debris for hours.

A series of pilot errors

Investigations into the black boxes, found at the end of August 2009 at a depth of 1,280 metres, have led to the conclusion that the accident was due to a series of pilot errors.

The president of the court of appeal did not detail the reasons for the decision. At first instance, the court had noted “imprudences” of the company “certainly linked to the accident”in particular the maintenance of night flights during the summer period, when the weather was likely to require a delicate landing manoeuvre while some of the airport lights were not working. The court had also noted the assignment to the flight of a co-pilot with “professional fragilities”.

On Tuesday morning, the president of the court of appeal, Sylvie Madec, announced that the judgment was confirmed, adding an additional penalty of posting the decision for two months in the premises of Roissy and Marseille airports.

The court followed the prosecution, which had requested the same sentence as in the first instance during the second trial, stating that it did not see “no mitigating circumstances” for the company. “Whatever sentence your court hands down will seem paltry in comparison with [la] suffering “ families, the attorney general said.

“We are very satisfied with this decision which confirms something obvious in light of the material elements in the file.”reacted M.^e Roman Leibovici, one of the lawyers for the victims’ relatives’ association. “It’s fifteen years of work that is coming to a conclusion today, hoping that the decision will be final because each time, it’s a new ordeal.”he added, referring to the “considerable means” of the company and its insurers, “who have so far done everything possible to retain the maximum amount of compensation.”

As required by international air transport conventions, compensation for the victims’ relatives was determined in parallel proceedings. In Tuesday’s decision, only two associations were awarded just under 2 million euros.