Families Welcome Guilty Verdict Over Mali Plane Crash That Killed 116

Families of victims of the 2014 Air Algérie plane crash in Mali have welcomed a French court’s decision to find Spanish airline Swiftair guilty of involuntary manslaughter.

A Paris court on Monday fined Swiftair €225,000, the maximum penalty, over the crash that killed all 116 people aboard Flight AH5017.

The McDonnell Douglas MD-83 aircraft, operated by Swiftair and leased to Air Algérie, crashed in northern Mali on 24 July 2014 while flying from Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, to Algiers, Algeria.

The victims included 54 French citizens, 23 Burkinabè nationals, Lebanese and Algerian passengers, as well as six Spanish crew members.

The court ruled that negligence in Swiftair’s training had contributed to the accident. Investigators found that the aircraft’s anti-icing system had not been activated while the plane was flying through a storm.

Ice crystals reportedly formed on pressure sensors, causing an automatic reduction in engine power and eventually leading to the crash.

Sandrine Tricot, who lost her husband, Frederic, in the disaster, said the verdict brought relief to families who had waited more than 12 years for justice.

“The amount of money was never the end goal. We are relieved that justice has finally been delivered,” she said.

Swiftair’s defence rejected the French investigation, describing the case as flawed. Spanish prosecutors had previously closed their own investigation without bringing charges.

The airline has 10 days to appeal the French court’s ruling.

The trial began in Paris in March and lasted four weeks. Relatives of the victims said the conviction was an important step towards recognising criminal responsibility for the disaster.

Lawyer Sébastien Busy, who represented most of the victims, described the verdict as a relief and said Swiftair would also be required to cover legal costs, which could exceed the €225,000 fine.

The crash remains one of the deadliest aviation disasters in Mali’s history.

• Tweet
• Share
• Share
• Share
• Share