This is the worst air disaster in the history of Air France. On June 1, 2009, an Airbus A330 connecting Rio de Janeiro to Paris crashed into the Atlantic Ocean. In the middle of the night, along the Brazilian coast, the crash of AF447 killed 228 people, including twelve crew members. Among the 32 different nationalities of passengers on board, France pays the biggest toll: 73 French people died in the crash.
Thirteen years later, the criminal trial of this dramatic accident opens this Monday, October 10 and it will last until December 8 before the Paris court.
After several years of expertise, counter-expertise and a dismissal pronounced in 2009, the families of victims and the unions of pilots appealed: a very long procedure which culminates, this Monday, October 10, in this trial in correctional. Before the civil parties, the manufacturer Airbus and the company Air France are tried for “involuntary homicides”.
Responses expected from Airbus and Air France
The drama was played out in 4 minutes in the cockpit of the plane. The Pitot probes, transmitting essential piloting data, iced over, causing the aircraft to lose control. But the investigation identified dozens of alerts in the months preceding the crash: other companies had alerted on failures in the operation of these Pitot probes. According to the judgment of the 2021 Court of Appeal, these alerts should have caused Airbus to react and push Air France to change the probes on its planes, as other companies did after the first incidents.
Airbus denies that these probes are the cause of the accident and point to crew failures and piloting errors. Airbus and Air France should plead not responsible and invoking the absence of directives, on the part of the supervisory authorities. The two companies risk a financial fine of a maximum amount of 225,000 euros.
From Montauban to Toulouse, bereaved families
A quarter of the French victims of the crash had benefited from a trip to Brazil offered by the CGED. This South-West company specializing in the distribution of electrical equipment wanted to reward its best salespeople.
In the Tarn-et-Garonne, it is Laetitia Alazard, 23, who leaves, accompanied by a friend. Like her, Aurélia Pasquet is Lotoise. She was 24 and she was getting married. For the Toulouse branch, Fabrice Pezzoni and his wife, Carole Pujol, are also part of the trip. 300 people will attend the funeral of this couple from Saint-Jean.
Two Hautes-Garonnaises were also members of the crew of this Air France flight. Maryline Colombies-Messaud was chief flight attendant and Laurence Yapi-Desmots, from Pibrac, was flight attendant. A couple of engineers from Vieille Toulouse, the Wilhems, also lost their lives that evening: they had returned from a Congress in Brazil, in which Anne-Marie, a professor at ENSIACET, was taking part.
Virginie Mommayou came from Montauban and was returning from her vacation. His father Michel will be in Paris this Monday for the trial: “Michel Mommayou expects a lot from this trial. He does not expect financial compensation, he has not received any compensation. For 13 years, he has been fighting at his own expense. His mourning he will never do. He wants to look at the heads of Airbus and Air France to tell them that they have failed in terms of information and in terms of apprehension of a certain number of situations, and that he holds them responsible of the death of his daughter__”, explains his lawyer Jean-Lou Lévi. Virginie Mommayou was 35 years old.