At the Paris Court of Justice,
Courtroom 2.01 of the court is packed. Shortly after 1:30 p.m. on Monday, the president, Sylvie Daunis, began reading the decision in heavy silence. A few minutes later, the magistrate pronounces the word that the civil parties feared so much: “relaxed”. On the benches, where the relatives of the victims are seated, tears flow.
Prosecuted for manslaughter after the crash in 2009 of flight AF447 Rio-Paris which killed 228 people, the European manufacturer Airbus and the company Air France are therefore finally exonerated. Justice considers that, if “faults” were committed, “no certain causal link” with the accident could “be demonstrated” during the trial, which took place from October 10 to December 8.
On the other hand, the court judged that these “faults” had led to a “loss of chance”, that is to say to increase the probability that the accident occurs. He therefore declared Airbus and Air France “civilly liable” for the damage suffered.
An incomprehensible decision for the families of the 228 victims of the accident. “I have a feeling of injustice”, tearfully declares Ophélie Toulliou, who has lost her brother Nicolas. “We were told that there are faults committed. So for us, there is a misunderstanding. How can companies commit faults (…) and yet be acquitted? I have a lot of trouble understanding justice in my country, it doesn’t make sense. »
“It’s total impunity”
“We expected an impartial judgment, it was not the case. We are disgusted, ”reacts Danièle Lamy, president of the association Entraide et Solidarité AF447, who lost her son Eric, 37, in the disaster. “Families are mortified, overwhelmed, words fail me,” she insists. “All that remains of these 14 years of waiting for us, the bereaved families, is despair, consternation and anger. The big loser in this case is French justice. »
“I am disgusted”, repeats for her part Claire Durousseau, who lost her 26-year-old niece and her 27-year-old husband. “They had a very good life ahead of them. This decision makes her “unhappy”. “We all believed in it, until the end, until the moment we entered the room. And unfortunately, we come back empty-handed, our dead have been killed a second time”. “It’s total impunity,” she laments.
“We were waiting for the word ‘guilty'”
Me Alain Jakubowicz, one of the lawyers of the association Entraide et Solidarité AF447, recognizes that “it is a judgment that is difficult for families to understand”. “This accident is not due to fate, it could have been avoided, should have been avoided. It’s not the pilots’ fault alone. That’s what I want us to remember,” adds the criminal lawyer, stressing that “Airbus and Air France are responsible for this tragedy, civilly but not criminally”. “We are told that they are responsible but not guilty. We were waiting for the word “guilty”. »
His colleague, Me David Koubbi, believes that the civil parties are “entitled to feel anger since an extraordinary catalog of faults has been retained by the court”. It is, he says, a court decision which “becomes an impediment to mourning”. The lawyer believes, however, that there are “reasons to rejoice”. “Their civil liability has been retained, which means that these two entities find themselves guilty of having caused absolutely irreversible damage to the 228 victims. The court remanded the issue of damages assessment to a hearing on September 4.