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More than 13 years after an Air France jet plunged into the Atlantic, killing
all 228 people on board, the French carrier and planemaker Airbus go on trial
in a Paris court next week with relatives seeking "light at the end of a long
tunnel".
 
Flight 447 vanished in pitch darkness during an equatorial storm en route from
Rio de Janeiro to Paris on June 1, 2009.
 
After a two-year search for the A330's black boxes, French investigators found
pilots had mishandled the temporary loss of data from iced-up sensors and
pushed the 205-tonne jet into an aerodynamic stall or freefall, without
responding to alerts.
 
Monday's opening hearing will mark the first time French companies have been
directly placed on trial for "involuntary manslaughter" following an air
crash, rather than individuals.
 
The maximum fine for either company, if convicted of involuntary manslaughter,
is just 225,000 euros ($220,612) or five times the maximum monetary penalty
for an individual, who unlike a company can also face jail, according to
French egal experts.
 
Even so, AF447 sparked a broad rethink about training and technology and is
seen as one of a handful of accidents that changed aviation. But reforms have
followed the methodical pace of global regulation or become mired in industry
disagreements.
 
Among dozens of safety recommendations, experts say the investigation led to
critical changes in the way pilots are trained to cope with mid-air upsets, or
loss of control.
 
But a call from the BEA for studies into better tracking in radar dead-zones
met little response until the disappearance of a second jet, Malaysia Airlines
MH370, five years later.
 
Over a decade after the BEA's initial findings, there are no signs of another
of its longstanding concerns being addressed.
 
Although black boxes provide important clues, the trial could rekindle a
long-running privacy row over whether cockpits should also be monitored
visually to decipher future accidents, especially now that security cameras
are part of everyday life.
 
In 2011, the BEA recommended the addition of cockpit video recordings to be
consulted only in case of an accident, supplementing existing voice and data
information.
 
It has been pushing for their introduction since an earlier Airbus crash 30
years ago, and the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board last year put the
same idea on its list of "Most Wanted" safety improvements - saying it would
have been "extremely helpful" in investigating Boeing 737 MAX crashes.
 
Pilot unions oppose cameras as an invasion of privacy, while some airline
industry groups have questioned the cost. The U.S. Federal Aviation
Administration said it encourages cameras on a voluntary basis while studying
screen-capture technology.
 
The trial at Paris Criminal Court runs until Dec 8.

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