Air France and Airbus have been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter over a 2009 plane crash that killed 228 people.
The Paris Court of Appeal has declared the airline and the aircraft manufacturer "solely and entirely liable" for the incident, in which flight AF447 from Rio de Janeiro to Paris crashed into the Atlantic Ocean, the BBC reported, Gazeta Express reports.
The passenger plane became stuck during a storm and plunged into the water, killing everyone on board.
A court had previously acquitted the companies of the charges in April 2023, but they were found guilty on Thursday after an eight-week trial. Both have consistently denied the charges and say they will appeal.
All 12 crew members and 216 passengers on board the flight were killed when the plane crashed into the sea from an altitude of 38,000 feet (11,580 m), making it the deadliest incident in French aviation history.
The wreckage was found after a lengthy search across 10,000 square kilometers (3,860 square miles) of the sea floor. But the flight recorder was not found until 2011, after months of deep-sea searching.
Relatives of some of the passengers, who were mainly French, Brazilian and German nationals, gathered to hear the verdict on Thursday.
The companies have been asked to pay the maximum fine – €225,000 ($261,720; £194,500) each – but some victims' families have criticised the amount as a symbolic fine.
Daniele Lamy, president of the AF447 victims' association, who lost her son in the accident, praised the court's decision, adding that the justice system was "finally taking into account the pain of families facing a collective tragedy of unbearable brutality."
The decision could be seen as causing damage to the companies' reputation.
During their closing arguments in November, deputy prosecutors said the companies' behavior had been "unacceptable," accusing them of "spinning nonsense and making arguments out of thin air."
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