A Paris court has cleared Air France and Airbus of manslaughter charges over the crash of flight AF447 off Brazil, which killed 228 people in 2009, reports The Times.
Families of the passengers and crew from the Airbus A330 had been eagerly awaiting the verdict after the emotional two-month trial ended in December, with prosecutors calling for the two big corporations to be acquitted.
Today’s verdict came after lawyers for the families and pilots’ unions urged the judges to convict the companies of involuntary homicide caused by recklessness and negligence, which they say sealed the fate of the flight. It crashed into the Atlantic in bad weather in May 2009, during an overnight flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris.
The prosecutor sided with the companies against the pilots, according to Danièle Lamy, head of the AF 447 families’ association, speaking after the trial.