RIO DE JANEIRO – The Brazilian head of a victims' association for the 2009 crash of Flight 447 from Rio to Paris said that justice has yet to be served in France’s worst aviation crash after a Paris appeals court found Airbus and Air France guilty of manslaughter on Thursday.
Air France and Airbus, two of France’s most emblematic companies, said in separate statements that they would appeal Thursday’s ruling, potentially prolonging the legal battle for years.
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Brazilian Nelson Faria Marinho, who lost his son in the crash that killed 228 passengers and crew members, said he remained unsatisfied with the verdict.
The Paris appeals court on Thursday found Airbus and Air France guilty of manslaughter over the crash, and ordered the companies to pay the maximum fine of 225,000 euros (approximately $260,000) each, according to Daniele Lamy, president of a French association of victims of the crash.
Lamy, who lost her son Eric in the crash, was in the courtroom throughout this trial and the original trial, and welcomed Thursday’s verdict.
But Marinho said he wishes to see prison sentences for the companies’ executives at the time, although the case has centered on institutional rather than personal responsibility.
“I’ve lost my father, my mother, brothers. It hurts a lot, but it is impossible to translate into words the pain of losing a child,” Marinho said, in his home office full of newspaper clippings and photos recounting his long struggle for justice.
The A330-200 plane disappeared from radar in a storm over the Atlantic Ocean on June 1, 2009, with 216 passengers and 12 crew members aboard. It took two years to find the plane and its black box recorders on the ocean floor, at depths of more than 13,000 feet (around 4,000 meters).
An Associated Press investigation at the time found that Airbus had known since at least 2002 about problems with the type of pitot tubes used on the jet that crashed, but failed to replace them until after the crash.
Air France was accused of not having implemented training in the event of icing of external sensors called pitot tubes, despite the risks. Airbus was accused of not doing enough to urgently inform airlines and their crews about faults with the pitots or to ensure training to mitigate the risk.
The crash led to changes in regulations for airspeed sensors and in how pilots are trained.
The official investigation found that multiple factors contributed to the disaster, including pilot error and the icing over of pitot tubes.
In 2023, a first instance court acquitted Airbus and Air France of manslaughter charges, prompting an outpouring of anguish from people whose loved ones were killed in the disaster.
Air France said it regretted Thursday’s conviction and recognized that its appeal will prolong an already lengthy procedure, particularly for the families and loved ones of the victims, but noted that the company’s criminal liability had previously been dismissed.
Airbus said it would file an appeal before France’s highest court in order to allow a reexamination of the legal issues raised by this case.
A French pilot’s union said it was satisfied with the decision. It would be “unacceptable to place responsibility for the outcome of this accident solely on the pilots, without taking into account all of the systemic failures that led to the disaster,” the National Union of Airline Pilots said.
Victims’ lawyer Alain Jakubowicz, speaking to reporters outside the courtroom, was overcome with emotion.
This verdict shows “there is no fight that is unwinnable," he told French TV. "Even when we are simply passengers, we can make global giants bend.”
Back in Rio, Marinho’s wife Maria Eva said that the pain of losing one of her five children remains vivid, but that her faith has helped with her grief.
“This trail of destruction left many hearts wounded,” she said from her living room featuring a representation of the Eiffel Tour. “But as long as there is life there is hope.”
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Angela Charlton in Paris contributed.
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