*

Air France 447 crashed in the Atlantic in 2009

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Black boxes of Airbus A330 were recovered two years later

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Earlier trial cleared both companies of corporate

manslaughter

(Adds context and lawyer quotes, paragraphs 6-8)

By Tim Hepher

PARIS, Sept 29 (Reuters) - A French appeals court will

begin a new trial on Monday of Air France and Airbus

, 16 years after a jetliner plunged into the Atlantic

killing all 228 people on board.

A lower French court cleared both companies of corporate

manslaughter in 2023, following a historic public trial over the

disappearance of flight AF447 while en route from Rio de Janeiro

to Paris on June 1, 2009.

After a two-year search for the A330's black boxes, French

investigators found pilots had mishandled the temporary loss of

data from iced-up speed sensors and pushed the jet into an

aerodynamic stall, or free fall, without responding to alerts.

But the trial more than a decade later also shed light on

discussions between Air France and Airbus about growing problems

with the sensors, or "pitot probes", that generate speed

readings.

Following nine weeks of evidence, a Paris judge listed four

acts of negligence by Airbus and one by Air France, but found

these were not enough under French criminal law to establish a

definitive link to the loss of the jet during a midnight storm.

The new trial is expected to stretch over two months of

hearings, during which lawyers for victims' families will try to

persuade appeal judges that there was a direct link between the

previously identified negligence and the crash.

"It is painful for the families to reopen everything 16

years later, but it is essential to keep going and demonstrate

that there was criminal culpability," said Sebastien Busy, a

lawyer for one of the main associations of victims' relatives.

"If you take one of those acts of negligence away, then the

accident would never have happened," he told Reuters.

Both companies have consistently denied any criminal

wrongdoing.

The maximum fine for corporate manslaughter is just 225,000

euros, but prosecutors believe a new trial will help to provide

a cathartic effect for families, who protested against the

earlier verdict.

The AF447 disaster has been among the most widely debated in

aviation and led to a number of technical and training changes.

Prosecutors have argued that Airbus reacted too slowly to

the rising number of speed incidents and that the airline failed

to do enough to ensure pilots were adequately trained.

The earlier trial exposed bitter divisions between two of

France's flagship companies over the relative roles of pilot and

sensor in the country's worst air disaster.

The chief executives of Airbus and Air France, part of

Franco-Dutch Air France-KLM, are expected to make statements

during the opening hearing, which starts at 1:30 p.m. (1130 GMT)

on Monday.