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A verdict is expected on Thursday in the appeal trial concerning the crash of an Air France flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris in 2009, in which 228 people died.<\/p>\n
The airline and the aircraft manufacturer Airbus are standing trial before the Paris Court of Appeals on charges of negligent homicide.<\/p>\n
The companies were acquitted in the initial trial, but the public prosecutor\u2019s office wants that decision to be overturned.<\/p>\n
The two companies are alleged to be responsible for the crash due to a lack of instruction and training. Air France and Airbus deny responsibility for the fatal flight. They face fines of up to \u20ac225,000 ($260,000).<\/p>\n
The Air France aircraft on flight AF 447 flew into a storm front on June 1, 2009 whilst en route from Brazil to the French capital, and disappeared from radar screens. The Airbus A330 crashed into the Atlantic.<\/p>\n
It was not until May 2011 that the last bodies and the flight data recorder were recovered from a depth of around 4,000 metres.<\/p>\n
Specifically, Airbus was accused in the trial of having underestimated the consequences of a failure of the probes responsible for measuring airspeed, which had iced up during the flight.<\/p>\n
The prosecution alleged that Air France had failed to train its pilots adequately and prepare them for an extreme situation such as that encountered on the ill-fated flight.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n