French court opens new trial on AF447 air disaster 16 years on

PARIS (Reuters) -A French appeals court will begin a new trial on Monday of Air France and Airbus, 16 years after a jetliner plunged into the Atlantic killing all 228 people on board.

A lower French court cleared both companies of corporate manslaughter in 2023 following a historic public trial over the disappearance of flight AF447 while en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris on June 1, 2009.

After a two-year search for the A330’s black boxes, French investigators found pilots had mishandled the temporary loss of data from iced-up speed sensors and pushed the jet into an aerodynamic stall or free fall, without responding to alerts.

But the trial more than a decade later also shed light on discussions between Air France and Airbus about growing problems with the sensors or “pitot probes”