A Paris appeals court has found Air France and Airbus guilty of corporate manslaughter over the 2009 crash of Air France Flight 447 from Rio de Janeiro to Paris, which killed all 228 passengers and crew. The ruling overturns a 2023 decision that had cleared both companies of criminal liability in France’s worst air disaster.
Flight 447, an Airbus A330, disappeared over the Atlantic on June 1, 2009, after its pitot tubes, which measure airspeed, iced over during a nighttime crossing through a tropical storm. The loss of reliable speed data caused the autopilot to disconnect and left the crew to manually manage a high-altitude emergency that investigators later concluded was mishandled, leading the aircraft into a sustained stall.
In the first trial, judges acknowledged several acts of negligence by Airbus and Air France, including issues related to the pitot tubes and pilot training, but ruled that causality had not been proven under French criminal law. Prosecutors and victims’ families appealed, arguing the companies failed to adequately address known sensor problems and to sufficiently prepare crews for such scenarios.
The convictions expose both firms to fines of up to €225,000 and significant reputational consequences, closing a major legal chapter 16 years after the crash while reinforcing corporate accountability standards in aviation safety.