Air France and aircraft maker Airbus will go on trial on Monday in Paris, over a decade after the fateful journey of Flight AF 447 from Rio de Janeiro to Paris that ended in the Atlantic Ocean in 2009, killing all 228 people on board.
The aviation industry heavyweights will face the charges of involuntary manslaughter after the plane crashed upon entering a zone of strong turbulence. The trial will examine the final minutes of the plane, including the fatal recordings from inside the cockpit as the captain and co-pilots fought to control the plane.
The trial is expected to hinge on the alleged lack of pilot training and a defective speed monitoring probe. The accident had altered the course of aviation history, bringing about changes in safety regulations, pilot training and airspeed sensors.
There were attempts from the part of both Air France and Airbus to stop the case from reaching a trial. The investigation into the accident had found a pilot error caused by a temporary loss of data from iced-up sensors as the reason for the crash.
Though the two aviation giants were charged, they insisted they were not criminally responsible and argued for dropping the case. Investigating magistrates overseeing the case dropped the charges in 2019, citing pilot error. However, in 2021, a Paris appeals court ruled there was sufficient evidence and ordered a trial into the incident.
The accident happened on June 1, 2009, when the flight, carrying people of 33 nationalities, approached the equator on its way to Paris. It then entered the "intertropical convergence zone" which often produces volatile storms with heavy precipitation.
By then, ice crystals had disabled the plane’s airspeed sensors, blocking speed and altitude information. The plane indicators reportedly showed erroneous altitude, and the resultant confusion caused the 205-tonne jet to go into an aerodynamic stall before plunging into the ocean.
"We’ve lost our speeds," one co-pilot is heard saying in the flight recordings, according to a report by The Guardian. "I don’t know what’s happening," one of the pilots was heard saying.
The plane was between Brazil and Senegal over the Atlantic when it vanished without a mayday sign. Though a search was initiated immediately, the debris including the black box flight recorders, was recovered only after two years. The search team reportedly combed 17,000 sq km of ocean bed at depths of up to 4,000 metres for over 22 months before they recovered the bulk of the fuselage.
Daniele Lamy, president of the victims’ group, Entraide et Solidarité, told AFP: "We expect an impartial and exemplary trial so that this never happens again, and that as a result the two defendants will make safety their priority instead of only profitability."
Meanwhile, Air France has maintained that "it will continue to demonstrate that it did not commit any criminal negligence that caused this accident, and will request an acquittal."
Though the companies could face only a minimal fine of up to 225,000 euros if convicted, the verdict could damage their reputation.
