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Thu, May 21, 2026 at 11:23 AM EDT
STORY: A Paris appeals court has found Airbus and Air France guilty of corporate manslaughter over a 2009 plane crash.An Airbus A330 vanished in darkness during an Atlantic storm en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris.The incident killed 228 passengers and crew in France’s worst air disaster. This verdict is the latest milestone in a 17-year legal battle between two of France’s major aviation companies and the relatives of the mainly French, Brazilian and German victims.It comes three years after the companies were acquitted in a lower court. The appeals court ordered them each to pay the maximum fine for corporate manslaughter of $261,720.The companies’ fines, minor in relation to their revenues, have been widely dismissed as a token penalty. But family groups have said a conviction would represent a formal recognition of their plight.The plane’s black boxes were recovered two years after the crash, revealing the crew had caused the passenger jet to stall after mishandling an issue with sensors. Prosecutors focused their attention on alleged failures inside both the planemaker and airline. Those included poor training and failing to follow up on earlier incidents. French lawyers have predicted further appeals to the country’s highest court.But the trial was seen as a cathartic moment for relatives…And a step towards resolution after decades of conflict within the French aviation industry over the cause of the crash.