Judgment details
• The Criminal Court in the French capital ruled that the Yemeni national airline was convicted of “involuntary manslaughter and unintentionally causing injuries.”
• The court obliged the company to pay more than one million euros to two organizations representing the families of the victims of the disaster, in exchange for damages and lawyers’ fees.
• As soon as the court issued its decision, the defense lawyer for the Yemeni company announced that his client would appeal the ruling.
The night of the disaster..and the miracle
On the night of June 29, 2009, Yemenia Flight 626 crashed in the Indian Ocean, as it was preparing to land in Moroni, the capital of the Comoros Islands.
The disaster resulted in the deaths of 152 people, including the 11 crew members and 141 passengers out of 142, and 65 of the dead were French.
The only survivor of the disaster was a 12-year-old girl, who clung to part of the wreckage of the plane for about 10 hours before fishermen pulled her out of the water.
Investigations, based in particular on the two black boxes found at the bottom of the ocean at the end of August 2009, concluded that the accident was caused by a series of errors in the pilot’s flight.
At the end of a lengthy investigation, the airline operating the flight was referred to the trial, which ran from May 9 to June 2.
Indifference
In the conclusion of her ruling, the president of the court said that “the court found that Yemeni airlines complied with the applicable regulations, but in return there were two cases of indifference directly related to the accident.”
She explained that the first case of indifference is that the company “maintained night flights” to Moroni Airport, despite the failure of some lights there, and the second is that the company “entrusted this flight to the co-pilot” despite the presence of “weaknesses” in his training.
The court ordered the company to pay without any delay one million euros in compensation for lawyers’ fees, and 50,000 euros in compensation for the costs of escorting the relatives of the victims to the Association of Families of Disaster Victims.
The National Federation of Victims of Attacks and Mass Accidents will receive 10,000 euros in compensation for non-material damages, and 20,000 euros in compensation for legal costs.
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