Yemenia Airways was convicted on appeal on Tuesday 10 September in Paris of manslaughter and involuntary injury, fifteen years after the crash of one of its planes off the coast of the Comoros in 2009, which killed 152 people.
The capital’s Court of Appeal upheld the judgment of 14 September 2022, which had fined the company the maximum fine provided for by law at the time of the events, i.e. 225,000 euros.
On the night of 29-30 June 2009, while preparing to land at Moroni airport, capital of Comoros, Yemenia Flight 626 crashed into the Indian Ocean, killing 141 passengers, including 65 French, and 11 crew members. Only a 12-year-old boy survived after clinging to the wreckage of the plane for hours.
A series of pilot errors
Investigations into the black boxes, found at a depth of 1,280 metres in late August 2009, led to the conclusion that the accident was due to a series of piloting errors.
In the first instance, the court noted “the imprudence” of the company “probably related to the accident”in particular the maintenance of night flights during the summer period, when weather conditions required a delicate landing manoeuvre while some of the airport lights were not working. The court also noted the assignment of a co-pilot on the flight with “professional weaknesses”.
On Tuesday morning, the president of the appeal court, Sylvie Madec, announced that the ruling had been confirmed, adding an additional penalty of displaying the decision for two months at the airports of Roissy and Marseille.
The court followed the public prosecutor’s office, which had requested the same sentence as in the first instance during the second trial, stating that it did not see “without extenuating circumstances” for the company.
