A French court on Thursday found Airbus and Air France guilty of involuntary manslaughter for their role in a 2009 plane crash in the Atlantic Ocean that killed 228 people.
The ruling from the Paris Appeals Court overturns a 2023 decision by a lower court that had acquitted the airline and airplane manufacturer. The appeals court fined each company the maximum legal penalty, 225,000 euros or about $260,000, and ordered them to pay legal costs.
It is not clear whether the companies plan to appeal the ruling. Airbus and Air France did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Air France Flight 447 was traveling to Paris from Rio de Janeiro on June 1, 2009, when it was caught in an overnight thunderstorm hours after departure. Ice caused the plane’s airspeed sensors to malfunction and the jet’s autopilot disconnected.
It took two years to recover the airplane’s black boxes, which were lying at a depth of more than 10,000 feet. An investigation report in 2012 determined that the three pilots flying the Airbus A330 had struggled to figure out how best to regain control of the plane amid a barrage of alarms.
“The crew never understood they were in a stall situation,” the report said, “and therefore never undertook any recovery maneuvers.” The report faulted the design of the warning system and the training the pilots received.
Prosecutors argued before the appeals court that Airbus had underestimated the severity of certain equipment malfunctions and failed to provide adequate information to airlines on how pilots should handle such failures. They also asserted that Air France had failed to train its crews adequately.
According to the investigation report, the plane had stalled, but readings gathered by its systems incorrectly led the pilots to pull the plane’s nose up, the opposite of what they ought to have done. Within minutes, the jet went into free-fall into the ocean.
The flight was carrying 12 crew members and 216 passengers, including dancers, doctors, engineers and executives from around the world. Eight passengers were children.
Families of the victims have fought for years to take Airbus and Air France to trial and were deeply disappointed by the 2023 ruling.
The judge who issued the earlier ruling said that Airbus and Air France had shown “imprudence” and “negligence” but that there was insufficient evidence that the crash would have been avoided if the companies had acted prudently.
Ségolène Le Stradic contributed reporting.
Niraj Chokshi is a Times reporter who writes about aviation, rail and other transportation industries.
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