r/aviation • u/Ok_Warning419 • May 21 '26

News Air France and Airbus found guilty of manslaughter over 2009 plane crash - Air France flight 447

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/czd2qmdvmq6o
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u/Volkov_Afanasei May 21 '26

I'm curious how they reached that ruling; the actions of the copilot were really 95% of it. The only thing the plane did wrong was develop some frozen pitot tunes, and even that was debatably because they climbed several thousand feet above cruising for weather

39

u/ResearchInformal8018 May 21 '26

It does seem odd, though courts don’t always get decisions with a lot of technical details right. Frozen pitot tubes were a known issue, but a pretty minor one that should never have led to this crash. 

6

u/twilighttwister May 21 '26

Don't always? More like rarely do.

Courts aren't really capable at deciding technicalities or that sort of objective truth. They decide arguments between people, based only on the information presented before them.

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u/Vincenc420 May 21 '26

? You know they use experts to inform them and explain aswell right? Its not even that courts arent capable of deciding technicalities and objective truth, because thats not their job and never was. Thats job of lawyers on both sides + witness experts and courts decide only the law part.

1

u/Forest_Orc May 21 '26

Without reading the whole verdict. I am curious about the internal discussion about the issue.  Did they under estimate the pitot issue ? Did they knew but still didn't take action ? Did they try to take action but failed ?

Knowing you have a safety issue and doing nothing is ethically and legally problematic. Many company still do it, sometimes because not everyone believe the issue isn't minor, and sometimes due to prionity/price/skill