Air France and Airbus were not sentenced by the Paris Criminal Court, de facto leaving the responsibility to the pilots.
By Thierry Vigoreux
© Bertrand Guay/AFP
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Ihe verdict of dismissal pronounced on Monday, April 17, in criminal proceedings, in favor of Airbus and Air France by the Paris Criminal Court is not surprising. The European manufacturer and the French company were prosecuted for manslaughter after the crash in 2009 of flight AF447 Rio-Paris. During nine weeks of hearing, fourteen years after the accident which killed 228 people, the three judges chaired by Mme Sylvie Daunis had competently worked on a complex and very technical file.
At the last hearing, on December 7, the public prosecutor had not identified any criminal fault likely to have caused the accident. During the five hours of argument, prosecutors Marie Duffourc and Pierre Arnaudin recalled that the court must render “one truth, that of justice”, suggesting that it may be different from technical and human truths.
The very ones that the many civil parties present would have liked to hear, who did not welcome the verdict. Air France and Airbus have not made any flagrant fault, the responsibility for the accident lies with the three pilots. A decision which implies that the pilots transformed the incident of temporary icing of the Pitot probes into an accident following an induced stall.
Procedures and expertise
These were therefore the conclusions of the prosecutors which were followed by the judges. The verdict was very badly received by the 476 civil parties. The court relied on the absence of certain cause despite the indisputable damage and the causal link.
“The pilots had the necessary knowledge to deal with the situation”, specifies the court. “Criminal liability is excluded but not civil”, underline Me Jacubowicz and M.e Buzy, two of the many lawyers for the civil parties, who regret that the civil liability of Air France and Airbus is retained, but not the guilt.
This dismissal should put an end to a painful file of fourteen years of procedures and expertise, except appeal, within twenty days, of the general prosecutor’s office. Indeed, only a conviction of the defendants – Air France and Airbus – would have opened the possibility of an appeal. This is not the case for the civil parties who could still, possibly, turn to the Court of Justice of the European Union.