Crash off the Comoros in 2009: maximum fine required on appeal against Yemenia Airways
In 2009, one of the Yemeni national airline's planes crashed into the sea off the Comoros, just before landing in Moroni, killing 152 people. Only a 12-year-old girl survived the crash. During the appeal trial which ended on March 28, 2024, the attorneys general requested confirmation of the sentences handed down at first instance two years ago: i.e. a maximum fine of 225,000 euros for homicide and involuntary injuries.
[Archive image] A Comorian soldier examines the remains of planes recovered from the Indian Ocean in an abandoned hangar at Moroni airport, Comoros, September 16, 2009. AFP - YUSUF IBRAHIM
By: Guilhem Fabry
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The appeal trial ended with defense arguments this Thursday, March 28. After sending their condolences to the families of the victims, Yemenia Airways lawyers recalled that legal expertise had concluded that there were no technical faults in the aircraft and affirmed that the pilots were well trained. During the investigation, however, the operation of the black boxes revealed piloting errors.
For the defense, Moroni airport and Asecna, the agency in charge of air safety in the Comoros, bear part of the responsibility in the tragedy. “
The company must not become an expiatory culprit
,” she pleaded. According to lawyers for Yemenia Airways, the disaster followed an accumulation of exceptional difficulties during the flight, which were not the responsibility of the company. They therefore requested release.
“
We have maintained that the accusation is based on presumptions, hypotheses, that nothing is factually proven
,” explains Maître Grégory Laville de la Plaigne, one of the defense lawyers.
The real causes of the accident have not been investigated, although it was clear from the start: it was a chain of multiple external factors which led these pilots to make errors, even though they were extremely well trained
.
The question of compensation for the families of the victims
Conversely, the attorneys general pointed out
Yemenia's “
multiple deficiencies
” in the training of its pilots and the maintenance of its planes, and saw no mitigating circumstances from which the company could benefit. In their indictment, they also supported a request from the civil parties by considering that the victims of foreign nationality, mostly Comorian, could be taken into account by French justice. This could open the way to compensation for their families, in the event of a favorable judgment from the Court of Appeal.
This support is a first victory for the lawyers of the civil parties, like Maître Ahmed Bahassani: “
Humanly, it would be difficult to tell a mother who has two children, one of French nationality and another of Comorian nationality, that the one who is French will have justice and the other will be set aside.
»
The trial plunged the victims' families back into the horror of the disaster, he also observed. “
This only increases the pain of the families who are struggling to grieve this story. We didn't even understand why Yemenia appealed. Frankly, in view of the debates and the elements of the case, his guilt is established since we have seen the enormous failings in pilot training.
»
Crash survivor Bahia Bakari leaving the courtroom for a break at the Paris courthouse, May 9, 2022, during the opening hearing in the 2009 accident case of a Yemenia Airways flight that killed all 152 of his fellow passengers and crew. AFP - THOMAS SAMSON
Bahia Bakari, the only survivor of the crash, now aged 27, was present during this appeal trial. “
I am relieved that it is over and I hope that this is the last procedure that we will have to go through, to be able to turn the page
,” she reacted at the end of the last day of hearing, 15 years after the fact.
I was there for myself, because I experienced this accident, but also for the families of the victims, to provide them with a minimum of support
.”
Many Comorians and French people of Comorian origin had boarded this flight from Marseille or Paris on June 29, 2009. After a stopover in Sanaa in Yemen, they were to go to the archipelago on the occasion of the period of "
big weddings
” that bring together entire villages. “
It is a tragedy that has entered the history of the Comoros, it is a turning point in the life of Comorians, whether in the Comoros or in the diaspora
,” insists Ibrahim Mogni, secretary general of the families association. victims of Yemenia Airways, also present at the trial.
Given the extreme complexity of the case, the Court of Appeal is allowing several months to deliberate. His verdict is expected in September.
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