French officials confirmed on Wednesday that France had indeed charged Yemenia Airways with manslaughter over 2009 deadly plane crash off the coast of the Comoros islands.
In June 2013, following a four-year investigation France declared that according to its own findings and technical reviews Yemenia Airways should never have allowed its Airbus to fly, let alone allow passengers to come on-board. Until that point Yemenia Airways has held an unblemished record.
On June 30th, 2009 a Yemenia Airbus heading to Comoros fell into the sea a few miles short of its destination, bringing down with it its147 passengers and crew members. All but one 12-year old girl survived the devastating accident, Bahia Bakari, a Franco-Comoran national.
Back in June, when France first laid blame on Yemen, the investigative team in charge of identifying the causes of the crash stressed that, “the accident is due to an unsuitable act by the crew" during "an un-stabilized maneuver.”
It is important to note that Yemen Transport Minister Waed Batheeb has always rejected blame, arguing that France had never given Yemenai any real opportunity to order a third-party investigation as to guarantee independence and reliability. Moreover, Yemeni officials have often warned that since France had immediately hinted to the press that the Airbus crashed because of Yemen’s cavalier attitude toward safety and flight regulations, any decisions taken would be by essence bias.
Far from sharing France's belief that the fault was technical due to poor maintenance, Yemen suspects that foul play was at work, and that rather than an accident the Airbus was taken down; a theory which has yet to be substantiated by hard facts.
Although not related per se, it is relevant to mention that France’s judicial attack on Yemen comes as Yemenis officials have called on French-based TOTAL and GDF Suez to align their LNG buying contracts with world’ market price, putting an end to almost a decade of a controversial discount. In 2005 former President Ali Abdullah Saleh agreed to sell France LNG at a fraction of its market value for a period of 20 years. This agreement has been the source of a very contentious debate and a source of embarrassment to the Yemeni government as officials have struggled to explain the move rationally.