Families of victims of the Rio-Paris crash have submitted to the courts an unprecedented report showing, according to them, that Airbus had been aware since 2004 of the weaknesses of its speed probes, the starting point of the disaster. learned on Sunday 1 September from the association, confirming information from the Parisian.
Ten years after the crash of flight AF447 and the death of 228 people on board on June 1, 2009, this report was sent August 8 to the investigating judges who are expected to make a decision soon awaited on the holding or not of a trial for Air France and Airbus.
A nonsuit for Airbus
However, on July 12, to the chagrin of the civil parties, the Paris prosecutor's office asked the magistrates to return only the airline to the criminal court and to dismiss the manufacturer. This report, consulted by AFP, was produced in November 2004 on behalf of Thales, manufacturer of Pitot probes that fitted Airbus aircraft.
The night of the crash, the icing of these small metal tubes placed on the cabin had indeed led to a disruption of the speed measurements and disoriented the pilots until the stall of the aircraft. The report is a comparison of degradation between a Goodrich probe and a Thales probe each cumulating "about 10,000 hours of flight".
A "degraded" probe, another victim of "corrosion"
The first is "little degraded" while the second presents a "catastrophic corrosion" according to the expert, who recommends to change the design. The AF447 flight sensors totaled almost 19,000 flight hours.
"Airbus, which participates in the certification of its equipment, could not ignore this warning," said Danièle Lamy, president of the association Entraide and Solidarity AF447. These probes, at the heart of the battle of judicial expertise that extends this investigation for several years, "are not sealed, we do not even know if they were found and analyzed," surprised Ms. Lamy: "C is as if he was missing the murder weapon. "
"Our objective is not to condemn Airbus and Air France, it is justice that will decide.But there are reports on the record that challenge them, they must at least they come to explain to the court, "adds Ms. Lamy. "Airbus seems untouchable, it's political, but I hope the judges will have enough courage," she says. Contacted, neither Airbus nor Thales wished to react.