Yemenia (IY, Aden) has been ordered to pay over EUR30 million (USD34.2 million) in damages by a French court to the families of those who died in the 2009 crash of Yemenia Airways flight IY626 in Moroni International in the Comoros. The AFP says Yemenia had sought to reduce the amount, particularly with regards to uncles, aunts, nephews or nieces, whom it argued "do not demonstrate a specific affected link".
In 2014, France charged the Yemeni national carrier with manslaughter after investigations revealed the aircraft, an A310-300 7O-ADJ (cn 535), had been banned from European airspace. Shortly after the crash, Dominique Bussereau, then French Minister of Transport, said the plane had been inspected in 2007 by the French Direction Générale de l'Aviation Civile and had been found to have had a number of faults. Yemen vehemently disputed these allegations saying the plane had undergone a thorough inspection and conformed to international standards.
Flight IY626 from Sana, Yemen to Moroni, Comoros, disappeared from radar while on approach into Moroni's Prince Said Ibrahim International Airport runway 06 in bad weather. The aircraft was found to have impacted the ocean with all but one of the 142 passengers and 11 crew on board found dead.
While a Comorian investigation had concluded that the "inappropriate actions of the crew" had caused the plane to stall and ultimately crash, Yemeni authorities have attempted to play up other angles including a possible "technical fault" with the jet as well as a missile unintentionally fired by one of the French warships based in neighbouring Mayotte.
