A French court on Monday found Spanish airline Swiftair guilty of corporate manslaughter over the 2014 crash of an Air Algerie passenger jet in northern Mali that killed all 116 people on board.
The Paris Criminal Court imposed the maximum fine of €225,000 ($264,000) following a three-week trial earlier this year into the disaster involving a Swiftair-owned MD-83 aircraft operating on behalf of Air Algerie.
Swiftair denied the charges and had sought to halt the French proceedings, arguing that it could not be prosecuted in France after a Spanish court had previously dropped the case.
The company has 10 days to appeal the ruling and did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Air Algerie Flight AH5017 crashed less than an hour after departing Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso. All 116 passengers and crew were killed, including dozens of French nationals.
Investigators determined that the aircraft lost control after encountering icing conditions while its anti-icing system remained switched off.
French prosecutors accused Swiftair of negligence in training its pilots to respond to ice accumulation and unreliable flight data, arguing that inadequate preparation contributed to the disaster.
The airline disputed the allegations, blaming shortcomings in aviation regulations and aircraft operating manuals.
In its ruling, the court dismissed some of the prosecution’s arguments concerning inadequate training but identified failures in the airline’s operational procedures.
It found that the aircraft’s captain had not undergone a proper proficiency check and that the crew had failed to complete the required number of refresher flights following a period of inactivity.
The verdict brings a significant legal development in a case that has continued for more than a decade, with families of the victims seeking accountability for one of the deadliest aviation disasters in the region.
