The European manufacturer Airbus and the company Air France, prosecuted for manslaughter after the crash in 2009 of flight AF447 Rio-Paris which killed 228 people, were acquitted Monday, April 17, in Paris.

Nearly fourteen years after the disaster, the Paris Criminal Court cleared the two companies, judging that, if "faults" had been committed, "no certain causal link" with the accident had "could not be demonstrated".

Shortly after 13:30 p.m., the vast courtroom was filled with relatives of the victims, Air France and Airbus crews, and journalists. At the announcement of the acquittal, some civil parties stood up as stunned, before sitting down, while the president continued her reading in heavy silence.

>> READ ALSO: Crash of the Rio-Paris flight: for the civil parties, "the main responsible is Airbus"

On June 1, 2009, flight AF447 from Rio de Janeiro to Paris crashed in the middle of the night in the Atlantic, a few hours after takeoff, killing all 216 passengers and 12 crew members.

Starting point of the accident: icing of the pitot speed sensors

On board the A330 registered F-GZCP were people of 33 nationalities, including 72 French and 58 Brazilian. This is the deadliest accident in the history of French companies.

The first pieces of debris were found in the days following the crash. But the wreck was not located until two years later, after a long search, at a depth of 3,900 meters.

The black boxes confirmed the starting point of the accident: icing of the pitot speed probes as the plane flew at high altitude in the difficult weather zone of the "Pot au noir", near the equator.

Destabilized by the consequences of this failure, one of the co-pilots adopted an upward trajectory and, in the misunderstanding, the three pilots were unable to regain control of the aircraft which stalled and hit the ocean 4 minutes and 23 seconds later.

Investigations showed that similar probe incidents had multiplied in the months leading up to the accident.

Airbus committed "four reckless or negligent acts"

For the court, Airbus committed "four recklessness or negligence", including not having replaced the model of the so-called "AA" pitot probes, which seemed to freeze more often, on the A330-A340 fleet, and the fact of having shown "withholding of information" in relation to the companies.

Air France committed two "culpable recklessness", related to the modalities of broadcasting an information note addressed to its pilots on the failure of the probes.

Nevertheless, according to the court, from a criminal point of view, "a probable causal link is not sufficient to characterize an offence. In the present case, as regards the faults, no definite causal link could be demonstrated with the accident".

During the trial that took place from October 10 to December 8, the prosecutor had requested the acquittal, considering that the guilt of the companies was "impossible to prove".

With AFP

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