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The trial of the deadliest disaster in the history of Air France opens Monday, October 10. The crash in the middle of the night, in the Atlantic, of the Rio-Paris flight took place in 2009. After 13 years of proceedings, the airline and the manufacturer Airbus will be at the heart of a trial which should last two months.
The wreckage of an airliner in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. The remains of an aircraft which made the connection between Rio and Paris. 229 people disappeared at sea on 1er June 2009. It was the deadliest disaster in Air France’s history. More than 13 years after the crash, the trial finally opens, a painful moment for the families of victims. But with this trial, relatives of victims also have the hope of knowing who is responsible for the tragedy. “The families expect it to be the trial of the two indicted: Air France and Airbus. The families would not support it being, as Airbus wishes, the trial of the pilots”says Danièle Lamy, president of the association AF447 – Mutual aid and solidarity.
A few hours after takeoff, flight AF447 went through a violent storm in the middle of the night. The Pitot probes, intended to assess the real speed of the aircraft, iced up and gave contradictory indications. The pilots are disoriented by the succession of alarms, the plane stalls. 3 minutes 30 minutes of free fall, before hitting the surface of the ocean and sinking to a depth of 4,000 meters. Airbus and Air France are on trial for manslaughter, accused of having underestimated the seriousness of the failures of the Pitot probes and of not having sufficiently informed the crews of the previous incidents. To the bar, for two months, the debates promise to be technical. The two companies will plead for release.