French court drops inquiry into Air France crash of 2009

French judges have dropped charges against Air France and Airbus over an air crash in 2009 that killed all 228 people on board, putting the emphasis on human error for the loss of control of the plane. Air France flight AF447, a twin-engined Airbus A330, crashed into the Atlantic en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris on June 1, 2009 after the jet stalled during a thunderstorm; 216 passengers and 12 crew members died, making the crash the deadliest in the history of Air France. On Thursday, French judges overruled investigating prosecutors who had recommended in July that national carrier Air France stand trial, according to a spokesperson for the French courts.  The prosecutors had not recommended putting Airbus, one of the world’s largest aeroplane manufacturers, on trial. The judges wrote in their decision that the “accident is evidently due to a conjunction of elements that had never occurred before, and thus highlighted dangers that could not have been perceived before this accident”. “The direct cause of the accident is the crew’s loss of control of the aircraft's trajectory,” the judges added, arguing other airline crews in similar situations had maintained control of their planes.  Both Air France and Airbus had been put under formal investigation in 2011 for “involuntary manslaughter”. The case has revolved around how Air France pilots responded to the loss of speed readings after pilot probes, sensors that sit outside the body of the plane, were blocked with ice, which meant the autopilot stopped flying the plane and the pilots took manual control. <br/>