Thirteen years after the Yemenia Airlines crash, the long-awaited trial opens in Paris
Hundreds of people take part on June 30, 2011 in Marseille, southern France, in a ceremony marking the second anniversary of the Yemenia Airlines plane crash.
© AFP - BERTRAND LANGLOIS
Text by: RFI Follow
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This Monday opens in Paris the trial of the Yemenia Airways disaster, prosecuted for homicide and involuntary injuries.
In June 2009, the Airbus A310 which liaises between Sanaa and Moroni crashes off the coast of the Comoros, killing 152 people and leaving only one survivor.
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On the evening of June 29, 2009, Yemenia flight 626 was about to land in Moroni, the capital of the Comoros, with 11 crew members and 142 passengers on board, including 66 French.
Leaving from Paris or Marseille, they changed planes in Sanaa, Yemen.
But a few kilometers from the coast, at 10:53 p.m. local time, it hit the Indian Ocean, engines at full power, before sinking into the water.
The accident will take the life of all the occupants of the device, with the exception of a miraculous.
Bahia Bakari survived by clinging to debris at sea for eleven hours, before being rescued by a fishing boat the day after the crash.
Thirteen years after the disaster, the families of victims are still waiting to learn the truth.
What really happened that night?
What are the causes, the malfunctions, the errors, the imprudences which led to the crash of the aircraft and the death of 152 passengers?
The Paris Criminal Court will examine from this Monday and for four weeks the responsibilities of the airline.
Prosecuted for homicide and involuntary injuries, she faces a fine of 225,000 euros.
Too long a wait
“
Everyone saw that the company's planes were old, but no one dared to talk about it.
By dint of testimonies, we have established that these were not isolated cases, but real garbage planes
, ”testifies Mr. Fatouma Mohamed, president of the SOS Voyages association in the Comoros, who will testify during the trial.
“
We pay for tickets with insurance and these planes should not carry human beings.
»
Yemenia will not be there physically, but it will be represented by its lawyers, which is badly experienced by the families of victims.
“
Thirteen years of waiting is too long to come close to the truth
,” regrets Said Assoumani, president of the association of victims of Yemenia Airways.
“
It was the Yemenia officials and the Comorian authorities who did everything to block the progress of the investigation.
»
The families of the victims are waiting for it to be clearly established that this plane should never have carried passengers, nor landed at Moroni, an airport which was not sufficiently secure.
They also demand that sanctions be imposed so that this type of disaster does not happen again.
“
There are still quite a few companies which may have the profile of Yemenia and which continue to be able to fly
”, estimates Claude Lienhart, one of the lawyers for the victims.
“
It may be difficult to enforce the sanctions imposed by the French courts, but it is important that they are nevertheless pronounced.
»
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