Air France and aircraft manufacturer Airbus have been found guilty of manslaughter over the 2009 crash of Flight AF447, a disaster that claimed 228 lives and remains the deadliest aviation accident in French history.
The ruling was delivered on Thursday by the Paris Appeals Court, overturning an earlier 2023 decision that had cleared both companies of criminal responsibility.
Flight AF447, an Airbus A330 travelling from Rio de Janeiro to Paris, disappeared from radar on June 1, 2009, while flying through severe weather over the Atlantic Ocean. The aircraft stalled during the storm and plunged into the sea, killing all 216 passengers and 12 crew members on board.
The wreckage was eventually located after an extensive search covering about 10,000 square kilometres of ocean floor, while the aircraft’s black boxes were recovered in 2011 following months of deep-sea operations.
The case has drawn years of legal and public scrutiny, with families of victims attending Thursday’s hearing to hear the long-awaited verdict. Most of those killed were French, Brazilian and German nationals.
The court ordered both Air France and Airbus to pay the maximum corporate fine of €225,000 each. While some relatives welcomed the guilty verdict, others criticised the penalty as symbolic and far too small compared to the scale of the tragedy.
Still, legal observers say the conviction carries serious reputational consequences for both companies.
During final arguments last November, prosecutors strongly criticised the conduct of Air France and Airbus, describing their actions as “unacceptable” and accusing them of relying on weak and unconvincing arguments during the proceedings.
Both companies had consistently denied wrongdoing throughout the case and are widely expected to pursue further appeals. Neither company had publicly commented on the ruling at the time of reporting.
The crash triggered one of the most difficult recovery operations in aviation history. French authorities led the technical investigation while Brazilian teams helped recover bodies from the remote Atlantic crash site, located more than 700 miles off the South American coast.
In the first few weeks of search efforts, 51 bodies were recovered, many still strapped into their seats. For several families, closure took years.
One relative told BBC Brasil in 2019 that he was only able to bury his son more than two years after the disaster. His son, engineer Nelson Marinho Filho, had reportedly been the last passenger to board the flight after nearly missing departure from Rio’s Galeão International Airport.
