It is the deadliest disaster in the history of Air France. On June 1, 2009, flight AF447 between Rio de Janeiro and Paris crashed in the middle of the night in the Atlantic, causing the death of its 216 passengers and 12 crew members, of 33 different nationalities. The wreckage was only located two years later, on April 2, 2011, at a depth of 3,900 meters, during the fourth phase of research. After a long succession of expert reports, the investigating judges had pronounced a general dismissal on August 29, 2019: they argued that the investigations had not made it possible to establish “a culpable breach by Airbus or Air France in connection […] with the faults of piloting […] at the origin of the accident”. Outraged, the relatives of the victims and the pilot unions had appealed. On May 12, 2021, the investigating chamber pronounced the dismissal for involuntary homicides of the manufacturer Airbus and the company Air France before the court.
The black boxes, fished out in 2011, enabled the investigators of the Bureau of Investigation and Analysis (BEA) to establish as early as July 2012 the series of human and technical failures that led to the crash. The incident occurs when the machine is in the Doldrums, near the equator. This intertropical zone includes unstable storms that cause strong turbulence and a freezing atmosphere. The Pitot probes, nickel tubes located at the front of the aircraft and which permanently provide indications of the speed of the aircraft, then begin to freeze. Deceived by the defective probes, the pilots receive erroneous data on the speed of the device, and think that the plane loses altitude.
The in-flight conversations, retrieved using the black boxes, bear witness to the incomprehension that reigned in the cockpit at the time. To regain altitude, the pilots, who had not been trained to manage such a situation, logically decided to pull on the stick to pitch up the plane. But the maneuver proves fatal: when the plane reaches 38,000 feet, it loses its lift in the air and stalls. In other words, he falls. In less than four minutes, the A330 crashed into the Atlantic. There will be no survivors.
The icing of these probes, considered to be the trigger for the disaster, was at the heart of the expertise battles. A year before the crash of the Rio-Paris, around twenty events linked to the freezing of the probes had indeed been identified and brought to the attention of the manufacturer. Incidents considered serious enough to push certain companies such as Air Caraïbes and XL Airways to replace these French Thalès probes with those of the American manufacturer Goodrich. Air France did not wish to follow the process, even if the company was worried about these failures with Airbus, according to the BEA.
The 31st correctional chamber of the Paris court will thus have to determine whether Airbus and Air France, which blame the pilots, have committed faults in certain connection with the accident. In its order for reference, the Court of Appeal considered that there were sufficient charges against Air France for having “abstained from implementing appropriate training (and) the information of the crews which was necessary” in the face of to the icing of the probes, “which prevented the pilots from reacting as necessary”. Airbus was fired for having “underestimated the seriousness of the failures of the airspeed sensors fitted to the A330 aircraft, by not taking all the necessary measures to urgently inform the crews of the operating companies and help train them effectively. “.
A total of 476 relatives have joined as civil parties and the trial will end on December 8. Five half-days will be devoted to those wishing to testify. At the helm will essentially follow one another many experts and pilots. Me Alain Jakubowicz, lawyer for the association of relatives of victims Entraide et Solidarité AF447, thus expects a “very technical” trial. The civil parties hope to obtain answers from the two aeronautical giants who continue to deny their responsibility for the disaster. Air France “will plead for release”, according to a press release from the company. Like Airbus, which did not wish to speak before the trial, the latter still disputes any “criminal fault at the origin of the accident”.
At the end of a “judicial fight” and a “chaotic” investigation, “we expect this trial to be the trial of Airbus and Air France” and not “that of the pilots”, declared to AFP Danièle Lamy, president of the association Entraide et Solidarité AF447. “We expect an impartial, exemplary trial, so that this does not happen again and that, through this trial, the two defendants put air safety at the center of their concerns rather than only profitability,” she added. If justice finds a criminal fault on their part, Air France and Airbus incur a fine of up to 225,000 euros.
