The trial of two of France’s biggest companies begins Monday over the crash of Air France flight 447 in 2009 that killed 228 passengers and crew. The national flag carrier and Toulouse-based Airbus\n \n have been charged with involuntary homicide for their part in the disaster over the Atlantic. Both companies were placed under official examination in 2011 for similar charges by prosecutors trying to determine responsibility for the crash.
France’s Bureau d’Enquêtes et d’Analyses , which investigates aircraft accidents, found in 2012 that the plane was falling more than 10,000 feet per minute when it hit the ocean but had a forward ground speed of just 107 knots, about 123 miles an hour, well below the stall speed of the Airbus A330. BAE’s accident investigators concluded that the initial cause of the crash was icing on devices called pitot tubes, sensors that are crucial to determining an aircraft’s speed and attitude.
Thats was quick only 13 years