Paris appeals court finds Airbus, Air France guilty of corporate manslaughter over 2009 crash
The court ordered each company to pay €225,000 after prosecutors said poor training and missed warnings helped cause the disaster.
- On Wednesday, a Paris appeals court found Airbus and Air France guilty of corporate manslaughter over the 2009 Rio-Paris crash that killed 228 passengers and crew, ordering each company to pay €225,000 .
- BEA investigators concluded in 2012 the crew pushed the Airbus A330 into a stall after mishandling iced-up sensors, while prosecutors cited poor training and lack of follow-up on prior incidents as internal failures.
- Relatives of the 228 passengers gathered to hear the verdict after their 17-year legal battle, which relied on black boxes recovered two years after the 2009 crash to demonstrate how negligence caused the disaster.
- Critics dismissed the €225,000 fines as a 'token penalty' amounting to minutes of either company's revenue, though both Airbus and Air France have repeatedly denied the allegations throughout proceedings.
- Legal experts predict further appeals to the country's highest court, a process expected to drag on for years more, as the legal focus will shift to intricacies of French law beyond the cockpit evidence.
215 Articles
215 Articles
French Court Convicts Air France, Airbus Over 2009 Disaster
Seventeen years after one of aviation’s darkest disasters, France’s courts have delivered a dramatic twist. Air France and Airbus have now been found criminally responsible for the crash of Flight AF447.The 2009 Rio-to-Paris flight plunged into the Atlantic Ocean, killing all 228 people on board. For years, the tragedy raised one haunting question — was it human error, mechanical failure, or both?On Thursday, a French appeals court said the answ…
Airbus, Air France Hit With Manslaughter Charges Over Pilot Training Failures in Deadly 2009 Flight 447 Crash
Airbus and Air France have been found guilty of corporate manslaughter over the 2009 crash of Flight 447, which killed 228 people after pilots reportedly became disoriented during a storm while travelling from Rio de Janeiro to Paris, a Paris Appeals Court ruled on 21 May 2026. The Airbus Air France manslaughter charges on the Flight 447 crash conclude a long-running legal battle over one of the deadliest aviation disasters in modern French hist…
Airbus, Air France Guilty of Manslaughter Over 2009 Atlantic Crash That Killed 228
An appeals court in Paris overturned a lower court’s 2023 verdict on May 21 and found Airbus and Air France guilty of corporate manslaughter over a 2009 crash that killed 228 people. Flight 447 from Rio de Janeiro in Brazil to Paris vanished from radar screens over the Atlantic Ocean on June 1, 2009, during a storm. The A330-200 plane was carrying 216 passengers and 12 crew members, and it took two years before the wreckage of the plane and its …
Air France and Airbus found guilty of manslaughter over 2009 Rio-Paris crash
The Paris Court of Appeals on Thursday found Air France and Airbus guilty of manslaughter in connection with the crash of flight AF447, which plunged into the Atlantic Ocean on 1 June 2009 on the Rio de Janeiro–Paris route with a death toll of 228 people. The ruling overturns the April 2023 decision in which both companies had been acquitted, and finds the airline and the manufacturer 'solely and entirely responsible' for the disaster, according
On Thursday, the Paris Court of Appeal found Air France and Airbus guilty of manslaughter for the 2009 air disaster, which had killed 228 people.
Airbus, Air France found guilty of manslaughter over 2009 crash
Airbus and Air France say they will appeal to France's highest court. Photo: Getty Images Airbus and Air France have been found guilty of corporate manslaughter over the Rio-Paris plane crash, but a 17-year legal battle over France's worst aviation disaster is set to continue.
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