English translation of the original statement delivered in French. Punctuation has been adapted for readability.
We have just received the decision handed down by the Paris Criminal Court in the trial of the company Swiftair, which operated a flight for Air Algérie between Burkina Faso and Algiers.
The Spanish company Swiftair has been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter. The court held that the company had committed several faults in the training and monitoring of its pilots’ training, which did not enable them to identify the stall situation, and that no necessary action was taken to recover the aircraft.
The court also held that these faults were directly linked to the occurrence of the accident. For that reason, it found Swiftair guilty of involuntary manslaughter and fined the company €225,000, which is the maximum provided for under French criminal law.
It also ordered Swiftair to reimburse the French justice system for all the costs it incurred. It ruled on damages concerning, in particular, victims’ family associations.
This is a satisfactory decision and obviously represents, for the victims’ families, a great relief: to have a responsible party identified in this tragedy, which left so many countries and nationalities in mourning.