None of the passengers on the plane, with the exception of a 12-year-old survivor, were ever found. Test from the crash of flight Yamania 626 off the coast of the Comorosin 2009, which killed 152 people, including 66 French, open from Monday 9 May before the Paris Criminal Court. The Yemeni national company that uses the A310 is assessed thirteen years after the fact. Here’s what you need to know about the legal meeting scheduled to take place this four weeks.
Accident just before landing
On the evening of 29 June 2009, Yamania flight 626 was about to land in Moroni, the capital of the Comoros, an archipelago located between Mozambique and Madagascar, with 11 crew and 142 passengers on board, including 66 French. Departing from Paris or Marseille, they changed planes in Sanaa, Yemen.
A few kilometers from the coast, at 22:53 local time, the plane crashed into the Indian Ocean, with engines at full power, before sinking into the water. Bahia Bakari, who was traveling with his mother, survived by holding on to debris at sea for eleven hours, before being rescued by a fishing boat the day after the accident, the most serious in Comoros history.
Human error involved…
The black box was picked up a few weeks after the accident, but the investigation remained stuck for a long time. French authorities have temporarily criticized their Comorian counterparts for not cooperating, while the victims’ families have accused Yemen of exerting pressure to prevent interrogations of its national company.
While the depravity of Yemeni planes has long been denounced by passengers, the investigation concludes that the state of the device, the Airbus which left the factory in 1990, is not in question – weather, lightning or missiles.
According to expert reports, specifically based on the flight recorder, the accident was caused by “Inappropriate behavior of the crew during approach to Moroni airport, which resulted in loss of control of the aircraft”.
… but Yemen is on trial for “murder and murder”
“Beyond the dramatic error caused by the pilot”the investigative judge considered that Yemen had “failed at many things”. He was accused of maintaining the night flight to Moroni, even though the airport beacon had long since been damaged, as well as “lack” in pilot training, qualify as “short”.
Yaman Airways was thus fined 225,000 euros for manslaughter and unintentional injury. However, the family will face an empty defendant’s bench: no company representative, who denies everything “failure”should not move because the war is raging in Yemen, according to his lawyer, Leon-Lef Forster.
“Yemen remains deeply marked by this disaster, especially for the victims, but he protests his innocence by showing that he is in no way responsible for the intervening facts.think the latter. There are malfunctions, but which are not caused by it and which will arise during the trial.”
Of the “1,000 rights holders”, 560 civil parties are
About 560 people were civilians, including many from the Marseille area (Bouches-du-Rhône), where many of the victims lived. A retransmission of the debate is planned for the judicial court of the city of Marseille. “We are about 1,000 rights holders in this case” but “only French victim rights holders are represented. It’s a very, very serious matter, it’s not normal for some victims to be left behind.”regrets Said Assoumani, president of the victims’ association.
Bahia Bakari, who lost his mother in the crash, will testify on May 23. In news reports and in a book, he describes the feeling, as he approaches the airport, “upheaval”to be like “electric” then have “black hole” before ending up in the water, where he heard “woman scream”. “For me it’s part of my destiny, and it’s not my day”he testified to France 3.
Relatives of the victims have “willingness to understand”notes Claude Lienhard, civil party attorney. “Thirteen years is a long time: psychologically and morally exhausting and even physicallyunderlined Said Assoumani. But after thirteen years of waiting and impatience, the criminal justice system has finally arrived. For us, this is the main goal of our struggle, it is an opportunity that will allow us to assign different responsibilities at all levels”.
“This will be a ‘garbage plane’ test, a shortage test, irresponsibility, which means that, with a race for profit, we come to tragedy.”
Said Assoumani, president of the victims’ associationon AFP
At the civic level, “only two thirds victim’s family “has been compensated, which is a shame”, denounce association.
