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Manslaughter Trial Underway for Air France Crash

Airbus blames the accident on pilot error, while Air France argues the pilots became confused and overwhelmed by conflicting data and alarms in the cockpit.

Meg Godlewski
Verified
The heads of both Air France and Airbus pleaded not guilty to involuntary manslaughter in a French criminal court in a first-of-its-kind manslaughter trial over the 2009 crash of an Air France Airbus A330 in the Atlantic that killed 228 people. [stock image]
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Key Takeaways:

  • Air France and Airbus executives pleaded not guilty in a landmark involuntary manslaughter trial concerning the 2009 crash of flight AF447, which killed 228 people.
  • The crash resulted from speed sensors icing up during an equatorial storm, leading to conflicting airspeed data, pilot confusion, and failure to recover the aircraft from a stall.
  • The trial is examining whether Airbus was too slow to address known issues with updated pitot probes and if Air France pilots were adequately prepared for such emergencies.
  • Victims' families have expressed strong emotions and view the potential financial penalties as negligible compared to the companies' revenues.
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The heads of both Air France and Airbus pleaded not guilty to involuntary manslaughter in a French criminal court in a first-of-its-kind manslaughter trial over the 2009 crash of an Air France Airbus A330 in the Atlantic that killed 228 people, according to a report.

The flight, identified as AF447, was enroute from Rio de Janeiro to Paris the night of the June 1, 2009, accident. 

Meg Godlewski

Meg Godlewski has been an aviation journalist for more than 24 years and a CFI for more than 20 years. If she is not flying or teaching aviation, she is writing about it. Meg is a founding member of the Pilot Proficiency Center at EAA AirVenture and excels at the application of simulation technology to flatten the learning curve. Follow Meg on Twitter @2Lewski.

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