French prosecutors won't be pressing charges against anyone over a 2008 Air New Zealand crash after after citing an investigators' report that blames pilot error.The German test crew lost control of the Airbus A320 and crashed it – killing all seven
French prosecutors won't be pressing charges against anyone over a 2008 Air New Zealand crash after after citing an investigators' report that blames pilot error.
The German test crew lost control of the Airbus A320 and crashed it – killing all seven people on board, including five New Zealanders -– as they tried to perform "a test in inappropriate conditions" off France's Mediterranean coast, the prosecutors said.
They cited the report by experts appointed by a court in Perpignan, near the site of the crash, the French news agency reported.
Although the report also said that two of the plane's flight monitors were malfunctioning at the time of the crash on November 27, 2008, it concluded that it was not the primary cause of the accident.
"It is established that the accident is not due to a maintenance or design problem of the aircraft," Perpignan's deputy prosecutor Domnique Alzeari told reporters.
But he said that the malfunctioning of the two monitors could be "linked to cleaning operations" on the plane the day before the crash.
Mr Alzeari said that his office had no plans to indict anyone in the manslaughter investigation that had been opened in the wake of the crash.
He noted that families of the victims or other parties had three months in which to request alternative expert opinions on the causes of the crash.
The plane had gone to France for tests and to be repainted in the colours of Air New Zealand before heading to Germany from where it was scheduled to leave for New Zealand.
Built in 2005, it had been leased to German charter firm XL Airways since 2006.
The jet had been undergoing servicing at EAS Industries in Perpignan and had been flying test circuits before it crashed.
