Air France, Airbus face retrial over fatal 2009 crash

Paris - More than 16 years after the crash of an Air France flight between Rio de Janeiro and Paris that killed all 228 people on board, the airline and aircraft manufacturer Airbus will once again stand trial on charges of involuntary manslaughter.
A Paris appeals court is due to reopen the case on Monday. Both companies face possible fines of up to $263,000.
Air France and Airbus have consistently denied responsibility for the disaster.
Flight AF447 disappeared from radar on June 1, 2009, after being tossed by a storm en route from Rio to the French capital. The Airbus A330 plunged into the Atlantic Ocean, killing 228 people.
The cause of the disaster remained unclear for years, and the final victims' bodies and the flight data recorder were recovered only in May 2011 from a depth of about 4,000 metres.
Investigators eventually concluded that the crew had become overwhelmed after the plane's Pitot speed-monitoring tubes iced up and no longer provided clear readings.
The crash was the deadliest in Air France's history.
Two years ago, a lower court acquitted both companies of the manslaughter charges, ruling that while they had acted at times negligently or carelessly, there was no direct causal link to the crash. Prosecutors appealed the verdict, leading to Monday's retrial.