French
prosecutors want Air France tried for 2009 Rio crash
PARIS (AP) - French prosecutors want Air France to stand trial for manslaughter
in the 2009 crash of a flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris that killed all 228
people aboard, a judicial official said Wednesday.
Prosecutors also have asked that the case against Airbus, maker of the doomed
aircraft, be dropped for lack of sufficient evidence. The official wasn't authorized
to speak about the case and asked to remain anonymous.
Air France Flight 447 left Rio de Janeiro for Paris but crashed into the
Atlantic Ocean on June 1, 2009. The Accident Investigation Bureau found that
external speed sensors were frozen and produced irregular readings on the
aircraft, which went into an aerodynamic stall.
A plethora of problems appear to have doomed the flight as it traveled through
turbulence. The captain was on a rest break when the emergency arose, the
autopilot disengaged and the co-pilots struggled to fly the aircraft manually.
In their final summing up on Friday of the investigation, prosecutors cited
negligence and insufficient training that lead to chaos in the cockpit. They
said there was a failure by the company to honor its legal obligation of
prudence by insufficiently informing crews of previous incidents at play in the
accident and procedures in such situations "in a context of insufficient
training of pilots at high altitude ... and deficient operational treatment."
Airbus had warned pilots a year earlier about possible incorrect speed readings
from the plane's external sensors, known as Pitot tubes, but changed them only
after the crash.
A report last year that was part of the judicial investigation blamed the Flight
447 pilots for failing to apply correct procedures, thus losing control of the
aircraft.
A victims group, AF 447 Victim Solidarity, contested the 2018 report, saying it
freed Airbus of all responsibility in the accident.
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