In a landmark ruling, overturning a first-trial acquittal, the Paris Court of Appeal found her and Air France guilty of manslaughter over the 2009 air disaster of flight AF447, which killed 228 people.
After a legal marathon of 17 years, the French justice imposed the maximum prescribed fine on the two national giants of the country.
Although the sum of money is considered purely symbolic, for the relatives of the victims – who appeared in court after years of suffering – the conviction is a moral vindication and the official recognition of the corporate omissions that led to the death of their people in the darkness of the Atlantic.
Relatives of some of the victims who died when the Airbus A330 disappeared in the dark during an Atlantic storm gathered to hear the verdict. The families’ associations said the sentencing represented recognition of their own Golgotha.
The court ordered the companies to pay the maximum manslaughter fine of €225,000 each, at the request of prosecutors during the eight-week trial.
French jurists predicted further appeals to the country’s highest court (Court of Cassation), which could drag out the process for even more years, prolonging the ordeal for the relatives.
The chronicle
Flight AF447 disappeared from radar screens on June 1, 2009, carrying people of 33 different nationalities. The aircraft’s black boxes were recovered two years later, after deep sea searches.
In 2012, accident investigators determined that the flight deck crew had driven the aircraft into a loss of support, cutting off lift under the wings, after mishandling a problem related to frozen airspeed sensors.
Prosecutors, however, focused their attention on alleged omissions by the manufacturer (Airbus) and the airline (Air France). These included, it was said, insufficient training and failure to monitor and evaluate previous similar incidents.
To establish the charge of negligent homicide, prosecutors had to not only prove that the companies were negligent, but also tie all the evidence together to show exactly how it caused the crash.
Under the French legal system, last year’s appeal process involved a completely new trial, with the evidence examined from scratch. Any further appeals after Thursday’s ruling will shift the focus from the cockpit of Flight AF447 to the intricate details of the law.
