Air France should stand trial for negligence and manslaughter over the 2009 crash of a flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris in which 228 people died, French public prosecutors have advised.
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After a 10-year investigation into the disaster, prosecutors have concluded that the airline was aware of technical problems with a key airspeed monitoring instrument on its planes but failed to train pilots to resolve them, a judicial source said on Wednesday.
Air France and the aircraft manufacturer Airbus were both placed under formal investigation for manslaughter in 2011 but prosecutors have now recommended that investigating judges drop the case against Airbus while Air France should be charged with both manslaughter and negligence.
Their advice will anger families of victims who want the European plane maker to be tried alongside Air France.
The judges in charge of the case are not bound to follow the prosecutors’ advice, but must take it into account in deciding whether to order a trial.
Air France will be able to appeal against any decision to bring the case to court.
The French air crash investigations agency, BEA, concluded in 2012 that the ill-prepared crew had failed to react correctly when flight AF447 stalled and lost altitude after the speed sensors froze up during a storm on June 1, 2009. Instead of levelling off or descending to pick up speed, the crew ignored repeated stall alerts and kept trying to climb.
The Airbus A330 plunged into the Atlantic in a crash likely to have been caused by ice crystals obstructing the plane’s Pitot tubes, which are small, forward-facing ducts that use airflow to measure airspeed, the investigators said.
It was Air France’s deadliest plane crash and the worst accident involving an Airbus 330. There were no survivors.
The Brazilian navy recovered some wreckage and two bodies within five days of the disaster, but the investigation was delayed because the aircraft’s flight recorders were not retrieved from the ocean floor until nearly two years later. Remote-controlled submarines eventually found remaining wreckage at a depth of 3,900 metres (12,795 ft).
Aircraft safety has been thrust into the spotlight following two crashes of 737 Max airliners made by the US manufacturer Boeing this year, leading to the grounding of the jets worldwide.