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18th Apr 2023

Air France found not guilty for crash that killed three Irish doctors

Ellen Fitzpatrick

The incident occurred in 2009.

Air France has been found not guilty of involuntary manslaughter after a plane crash led to the deaths of 228 people in 2009.

Flight 447 was travelling from Rio to Paris when it disappeared off the radar due to a storm.

Dr Aisling Butler from Tipperary, Dr Jane Deasy from Dublin and Dr Eithne Walls from Co Down all tragically passed away following the crash.

When tragedy struck, the three women were heading back to Ireland following a holiday in South America.

To this day, the cause of the crash is still unknown.

In a two-month trial, prosecutors accused the airline of failing to train their pilots in how to respond to a system malfunction, as it is believed the sensors had iced over and caused the crash.

The Irish Times reported that when the final “not guilty” verdict was read, families of those who had been killed in the crash could be heard crying from the gallery.

The verdict came after not enough evidence was found to convict the airline of the crash or any wrongdoing.

Air France has paid compensation to the victim’s families and there have been dramatic changes in the airline over regulations and pilot training.

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