The French Public Prosecutor’s Office on Wednesday (26/11/2025) requested the conviction of aircraft manufacturer Airbus and airline Air France, in the appeal trial of the AF447 accident between Rio de Janeiro and Paris that in 2009 claimed the lives of 228 people.
Air France and Airbus were acquitted in the court of first instance in April 2023, when the Paris Correctional Court considered that although “recklessness” and “negligence” had been committed, “no proven causal connection (…) could be established” with the deadliest accident in the history of French airlines.
“We request the annulment of the ruling that acquitted the accused, and therefore, Madam President, we ask you to issue a conviction for manslaughter,” the two public prosecutors announced in their pleading, describing the two companies’ line of defense during the trial at the Paris Court of Appeal as “immodest.”
On June 1, 2009, an Airbus departing Rio de Janeiro for Paris in the middle of the night crashed into the Atlantic Ocean, a few hours after take-off, killing 216 passengers and 12 crew members. There were people of 33 nationalities on board the A330.
Pitot speed probe failure
The two black boxes confirmed the origin of the accident: Pitot’s speed sensors froze while the plane was flying at high altitude in a difficult meteorological area near the equator.
The accident occurred after the freezing of the speed sensors sent incorrect information to the cockpit, causing the pilots to make inappropriate decisions, which led to the plane falling into the sea, about a thousand kilometers from the Brazilian coast.
The prosecution believes that Airbus underestimated the failures that emerged in these investigations and that Air France did not adequately train its pilots to confront such a situation.
It is a thesis that the two airlines rejected during the process, the opening of which was attended by their senior managers, Anne Riegel, on behalf of the airline, and Guillaume Faury, on behalf of the airline manufacturer.
“A sequence of unfortunate circumstances”
They both showed respect for the victims and offered their condolences, but denied full responsibility for the accident, which they attributed to a series of unfortunate circumstances.
The Public Prosecutor’s Office is now demanding that they be sentenced for manslaughter, which as legal entities could carry a maximum of 225,000 euros.
Prosecutor Rodolphe-Joy Berman and his colleague Agnès Labruelle said: “This conviction will disgrace and tarnish the reputation of these two companies. It is a decision that will once again put people at the center of our concerns. Therefore, this conviction must resonate as a warning.”
The relatives of the victims, most of whom are French (72), Brazilians (58) and Germans (26), hope to finally obtain the conviction of the two companies to end their mourning.
JC (AFP, EFI)