The Paris Appeals Court found Air France and Airbus guilty of corporate manslaughter Thursday for the 2009 crash of flight AF447, which killed all 228 people on board when the Airbus A330 stalled during a storm and plunged into the Atlantic Ocean.
According to BBC News, the ruling reversed an April 2023 verdict that had cleared both companies. The court ordered each to pay the maximum allowable fine of €225,000, roughly $261,720. Some victims' families criticized that amount as a token penalty, though the ruling may still cause lasting damage to both companies' reputations.
The flight vanished from radar on June 1, 2009, while traveling from Rio de Janeiro to Paris. The aircraft fell from 38,000 feet into the ocean, making it the deadliest incident in French aviation history. The wreckage was located after a search covering more than 10,000 square kilometers of sea floor, and the black box was not recovered until 2011, following months of deep-sea searches.
The crash killed 12 crew members and 216 passengers, who were primarily French, Brazilian and German nationals. In the first 26 days of the recovery operation, 51 bodies were retrieved, many still buckled into their seats. The search area was located more than 700 miles from the coast of South America, making the recovery effort one of the most complex in aviation history.
One family member who spoke to BBC News Brasil in 2019 said he had only been able to bury his son's remains more than two years after the incident. His son, 40-year-old engineer Nelson Marinho Filho, had nearly missed the flight out of Rio de Janeiro's Galeão International Airport and was the last person to board, according to Air France staff.
During closing arguments in November, deputy prosecutors described the companies' behavior as "unacceptable," accusing them of "spouting nonsense and pulling arguments out of thin air." Both Airbus and Air France had repeatedly denied the charges throughout the proceedings.
French lawyers believe both companies are likely to launch further appeals. The BBC said it contacted Airbus and Air France for comment.
Relatives of passengers gathered at the court Thursday to hear the verdict.
