When the management of Airbus and Air France met in court last October, they were greeted by calls from relatives. Both companies were charged with negligent homicide after a plane crashed in the Atlantic Ocean in 2009. Today they were acquitted in Paris, reports AFP. All 228 people on board died – four of them were Norwegians. Kristian Berg Andersen, Karsten Moholt and Karsten Aleksander Moholt worked in StatoilHydro (now Equinor), and in addition an 11-year-old boy who had both Norwegian and British citizenship died. The accident is the worst in the history of Air France, and families from several countries fought for a decade to have the case tried in court, which on Monday acquitted both companies. Several of the relatives took the decision hard, and in the courtroom there were several who cried when the judge presented the decision, NTB reports. Airbus slaughter in report The plane was on its way from Rio de Janeiro in Brazil to the French capital Paris when it crashed into the Atlantic in 2009. It ended up in a severe storm, and according to the commission of inquiry several things went wrong at the same time. The conclusion was both technical and human failure. Only after two years was the wreckage of the Airbus A330 aircraft and the technical equipment found – at a depth of 4,000 metres. The instruments failed in the tropical storm, and the pilots then made several mistakes. The plane pitched, lost buoyancy and crashed. An investigation carried out by the news agency AP showed that Airbus had known for several years about problems with the pressure and speed gauges on the aircraft type, but that they were still not replaced. The charges against Air France were about insufficient training of the pilots with a view to dealing with sensor errors. There were no individuals charged in the case, so no one risked a prison sentence. Desperate fight against the forces “What do you think? What do you think? What shall we do?” said one pilot on the footage from the cockpit which has been released. The two pilots who sat at the controls had much less experience than the captain, and the recording testifies to a desperate struggle against both the technical equipment – and the forces of nature. “I’m not in control of the plane, I’m not in control at all,” said the other, as the alarm went off for the sixth time in two minutes. One of the pilots swore in frustration as they waited for the captain to return from a routine break. By then the plane’s speed sensors had stopped working, and the plane was descending. “I don’t know what’s going on, I’m not getting vertical speed.” Monday’s verdict was as expected. Already in December, the French public prosecutor’s office stated that they found no grounds for convicting the companies of negligent homicide. – For us, it appears impossible to prove guilt. We know that this will probably be difficult for those behind the civil lawsuit to hear, but we are not in a position where we can demand that Air France and Airbus be convicted, said the prosecutor’s office when they were to submit their plea in the trial.
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Now the companies have been acquitted – news Urix – Foreign news and documentaries
