Paris, France (Running Africa) — A Paris court has found Spanish airline Swiftair guilty of involuntary manslaughter over the 2014 Air Algérie crash in Mali that killed all 116 people on board, bringing a major ruling in a case that has lasted more than a decade.

The Paris criminal court fined Swiftair €225,000, the maximum penalty, after finding that shortcomings in the airline’s pilot training contributed to the crash of Air Algérie flight AH5017 on July 24, 2014.

Families of those killed welcomed the verdict as an important step toward accountability following years of legal proceedings.

What Caused the Air Algérie Flight AH5017 Crash?

The McDonnell Douglas MD-83 was travelling from Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, to Algiers, Algeria, when it crashed in northern Mali during severe weather.

French investigators concluded that ice accumulated on the aircraft after its anti-icing system was not activated.

The icing affected pressure sensors, producing incorrect readings that led to an automatic reduction in engine power. The aircraft subsequently lost control and crashed.

The Paris court found that deficiencies in Swiftair’s training of its pilots contributed to the disaster.

Air Algérie Crash Killed 116 People

All 110 passengers and six crew members aboard flight AH5017 were killed.

The victims included 54 French nationals and 23 people from Burkina Faso, while the six crew members were Spanish.

Passengers from several other countries, including Lebanon, Algeria, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Canada, Germany and Nigeria, were also among those killed.

The multinational death toll made the disaster one of the deadliest aviation accidents involving a flight serving West Africa in recent decades.

Swiftair Rejects Court Findings

Swiftair has rejected the findings and maintained that failures in its pilot training programme did not cause the crash.

The airline has 10 days to appeal the verdict.

For families of the victims, the Paris court’s decision represents a significant legal development more than 12 years after flight AH5017 crashed in Mali.