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In their conclusions, seen by Reuters, the
judges said the pilots of the Airbus A330 had failed to process
all the warnings and instrument readings provided by the
aircraft.
The plane plunged into the ocean en route from Rio de Janeiro to
Paris after entering an aerodynamic stall and falling from an
altitude of 38,000 feet during a storm, its engines running but
its wings losing lift.
"The direct cause of the accident is the crew's loss of control
of the aircraft's trajectory," the judges determined.
Other crews, faced with similar situations, had successfully
maintained control of their aircraft, their ruling said.
The magistrates overruled the prosecutors investigating the
case, who had recommended that Air France stand trial over the
crash in July. The magistrates followed the prosecutors'
recommendation to drop the charges against Airbus.
In their 2012 report, French accident investigators found the
crew of AF447 mishandled the loss of speed readings from sensors
blocked with ice and pushed the jet into a stall by holding the
nose too high.
(Reporting by Sophie Louet and Emmanuel Jarry; Writing by
Richard Lough; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle)
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