The prosecution demanded Thursday in Paris the maximum fine of 232,500 euros against the company Yemenia Airways, tried for homicides and involuntary injuries after the crash of a plane in 2009 off the Comoros which had killed 152 people.
Following a series of pilot errors on approach to Moroni airport, Yemenia flight 626 crashed into the Indian Ocean on the night of June 29 to 30, 2009, taking with it 142 passengers, including 66 French, and 11 crew members.
Only a 12-year-old girl, Bahia Bakari, had survived.
The Yemeni national company participated in the errors that led to the disaster, it made omissions and made bad decisions, argued prosecutor Marie Jonca, on the last day of this trial which began on May 9.
You have in this cockpit two pilots who do not have an equivalent professional level, who do not know how to work together and, above all, who have never been specifically trained to approach this difficult and particular terrain at Moroni airport. , underlined the magistrate.
In addition, she added, you have two pilots who will continue an approach in delicate conditions, at night, in a manner prohibited by law (and) in dangerous circumstances, because of the failure for several months of certain traffic lights. the airport.
Despite these circumstances of which it was aware, the company did not decide to reschedule this flight in the early morning and, in a consistent way as it was able to do immediately after the accident, to simply prohibit night flights during this period, underlined Marie Jonca.
She waited for the accident to happen, insisted the magistrate. The company had a reactive management of the risk, one expected from it a proactive management.
Find the lowest rate for your real estate project!
The prosecutor also requested the publication of the court judgment on the company’s website.
In the large courtroom, a hundred relatives of the victims came to listen to the submissions. In the front row sat Bahia Bakari, now 25, who survived by clinging to plane wreckage for ten hours before being rescued by a boat.
No official of the company, which disputes any breach, is present before the Paris Criminal Court because of the war which is ravaging Yemen, according to the company’s lawyers who, as the law allows, have represented it from the start. of the trial.
They must plead for release in the afternoon.