NEED TO KNOW
- The Paris Court of Appeal has found Air France and Airbus guilty of involuntary homicide in relation to the 2009 crash that killed 228 people, including 72 French nationals and 58 Brazilians
- Airbus plans to appeal the verdict while offering sympathies to the victims’ families and loved ones
- Families of victims criticized the €225,000 (around $260,000) fine as a “token” penalty for the negligence that caused the crash
An appeals court in Paris has found Air France and Airbus guilty of involuntary homicide in relation to a June 2009 crash in which 228 people died, a statement obtained by PEOPLE has confirmed.
Flight AF447, which was traveling between Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and Paris, France on June 1 of that year, plunged into the Atlantic Ocean from a height of 38,000 feet after the engine stalled during a storm, killing everyone on board, the BBC reported.
The Paris Court of Appeal noted in its release that there were 12 crew members and 216 passengers on board, with France 24 reporting that the death toll included 72 French nationals and 58 Brazilians.
JEREMY MELLOUL/AFP via Getty
A court had previously cleared Air France and Airbus of any wrongdoing in April 2023, per the Paris Court of Appeal, but the court decided to overturn the verdict.
The court noted that each company would be fined the maximum penalty provided by law, namely €225,000 (around $260,000).
In a summary of the tragic incident, described by The Guardian and Reuters as “France’s worst air disaster,” the Paris Court of Appeal stated that “Airbus A330-200 F-GZCP operating flight Rio-Paris AF447 of Air France disappeared from radar screens about 3 1/2 hours after takeoff.”
The court noted that at the time the aircraft was traversing the Intertropical Convergence Zone, a band of low pressure around the Earth, before crashing into the Atlantic Ocean.
ERIC CABANIS/AFP via Getty
Per the court, the wreckage of the plane was discovered 22 months after the crash at a depth of 12,795 feet. Because the “concordant data from the flight recorders” was “found intact,” it was “possible to retrace precisely the flight conditions encountered by the crew.”
In May 2021, Airbus and Air France were referred to the Paris Criminal Court for “involuntary homicides for having by carelessness, inattention, negligence or breach of a duty of prudence imposed by law or regulation, involuntarily causing the death of all passengers aboard the aircraft operating flight AF 447.”
As reported by The Guardian and the BBC, both companies have repeatedly denied all charges.
Air France and Airbus were found guilty of negligence, per the release, which noted Air France’s “lack of pilot training” and “inadequacy” of crew training.
According to the BBC, relatives of some of the passengers gathered to hear the verdict on Thursday, May 21. The outlet also noted that some of the victims’ families have criticized the “token” amount of the penalty.
During the first 26 days of searching for the bodies of the passengers after the incident, 51 were recovered, many of them still buckled into their seats, per the BBC.
The outlet also noted one mother who spoke to BBC News Brasil in 2019, saying that she was only able to bury her 40-year-old son’s body two years after the tragic crash. Her son, engineer Nelson Marinho Filho, nearly missed the flight out of Rio de Janeiro’s Galeão International Airport and was the last person to board, according to Air France staff, per the BBC.
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Following the verdict, Airbus issued a press release noting its intention to appeal against the verdict. The company also offered its “deepest sympathies and unwavering support to the families and loved ones of the victims of this tragic accident.”
PEOPLE has reached out to Air France, but didn’t immediately hear back.
