Air France and manufacturer Airbus have been found guilty of negligent homicide in the appeal case regarding the 2009 crash of a flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris in which 228 people died.
The Paris Court of Appeal on Thursday imposed a fine of €225,000 ($260,000) on each company, overturning an acquittal in the initial trial against the two French firms.
The court ruled that the airline and the aircraft manufacturer were solely responsible for the crash and liable for damages.
The Air France aircraft on flight AF 447 flew into a storm front on June 1, 2009 whilst en route from Brazil to the French capital, and disappeared from radar screens. The Airbus A330 crashed into the Atlantic.
It was not until May 2011 that the last bodies and the flight data recorder were recovered from a depth of around 4,000 metres.
