Air France and Airbus cleared of all wrongdoing in Flight AF447 crash
Air France and Airbus have been cleared of all wrongdoing in a plane crash that led to the death of 228 people after French judges have laid the blame solely at the feet of the aircraft's "sleeping pilots".
Judges at the Paris Criminal Court ruled that the companies were not guilty of manslaughter in the Flight AF447 crash that saw the plane plunge into the Atlantic back in 2009 after three pilots failed to manage malfunctioning equipment on an Airbus 330 during a storm.
Corporate guilt was "impossible to demonstrate", according to the judgment, principally due to the fact that investigators were unable to establish a "culpable breach" by Airbus or Air France in connection with the piloting faults.
The ruling effectively means the flight's three pilots were fully responsible, with investigations into the crash revealing that two of them had fallen asleep.
Both companies faced trial for "involuntary manslaughter" after prosecutors accused Air France of not offering sufficient training to pilots as to how they should best react when dealing with malfunctioning Pitot tubes, which monitor speed.
As of 1440 BST, Air France-KLM shares were up 0.80% at €1.51 each and Airbus shares were 0.89% higher at €127.40 each.
Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com