A French court has found Air France and Airbus criminally liable for the 2009 crash of Flight AF447 from Rio de Janeiro to Paris, 17 years after the accident that killed 228 people. The ruling reverses earlier proceedings in which both companies had been acquitted, and follows renewed legal efforts by relatives of the victims and prosecutors.
The Airbus A330 operating AF447 disappeared over the Atlantic on 1 June 2009 after entering a zone of severe weather. Investigators later determined that inconsistent airspeed data, linked to icing of the pitot probes, led to the disconnection of the autopilot and triggered a chain of pilot handling errors that resulted in an aerodynamic stall.
The court concluded that Air France failed to provide adequate training and guidance for crews on handling high-altitude loss of airspeed indications, while Airbus was faulted for shortcomings related to the design and known vulnerabilities of the pitot systems. Both companies were fined 225,000 euros, a symbolic amount compared with the scale of the tragedy but significant in establishing legal responsibility.
The AF447 crash remains the deadliest in Air France’s history and one of the most consequential for modern aviation safety, prompting global changes in pilot training, stall recovery procedures, and standards for flight-data and cockpit-voice recorders.