French prosecutors are looking to take Yemenia (IY, Aden) to trial over the 2009 crash of an A310-300 that killed 152 people, mostly French citizens.
An investigating judge will decide whether or not to hold a manslaughter trial, Agence France Presse reported on June 4, citing multiple unnamed sources.
Leon Lef Forster, a lawyer for Yemenia, told the news agency he would argue the carrier was not responsible and no trial should take place.
According to a French accident report published in 2013, during the night of June 29, 2009, flight IY626, after taking off from Sana, Yemen, crashed at sea with 153 people on board, including 11 crew members, during approach into Moroni Prince Said Ibrahim International Airport. The aircraft came down about nine nautical miles from the threshold of runway 20.
In June 2013, an investigation by the Comoros authorities said "the accident was due to inappropriate action by the crew" during "an unstabilised manoeuvre,” Fox News reported at the time. The French accident report stated that pilot error, compounded by poor training and bad weather, were the main causes for the crash. The Yemen Post reported that Yemeni authorities suspected the aircraft had been shot down, in spite of a lack of evidence.
In 2014, France charged Yemenia with manslaughter after investigations revealed the aircraft, A310-300 7O-ADJ (msn 535), had been banned from European airspace, CNN reported.
In February 2015, a French court ordered Yemenia to pay over EUR30 million euros (USD34 million) in damages to the families of those who died in the crash; a figure the airline then sought to reduce, Agence France Presse reported.
Yemenia is controlled by the country's Aden-based internationally recognised government and continues to fly despite the ongoing conflict in Yemen. According to the ch-aviation Commercial Aviation Aircraft Data module, the airline's fleet entails three A320-200s (used for commercial flights), a VIP-configured B757-200, and two inactive A310-300s.
