https://www.ladepeche.fr/article/201...is-proces.html
For the father of a victim, "the truth broke on the crash, I'm waiting for the trial"
Flight AF 447 Rio-Paris disappeared - Michel Mommayou, the father of one of the victims of the flight Rio - Paris
Eight years after the crash of the Rio - Paris flight, the latest judicial expertise confirms the serious mistakes of the Air France pilots. A decision that, unlike the president of the asso families of victims, relieves, the father of Virginie Mommayou. The 35-year-old Tarn-et-Garonnaise had died with the other 227 passengers.
In front of Michel Mommayou's office, Virginie's radiant smile contrasts with the tragedy that the sexagenarian has been facing for almost nine years. On June 1, 2009, the life of his daughter who returns with a friend of a trip to Brazil, stops abruptly. She is one of the 228 victims of flight AF 447, one of the largest air crashes of the French company. Relentlessly, this entrepreneur who, from simple plasterer is now at the head of a flourishing construction company in Saint-Aignan, has continued to want to know the truth about the death of a girl. Is this a technical problem of the A 330 that caused the tragedy? A human error of the team of pilots of this transatlantic flight? Michel Mommayou did not wait for the two reports of judicial expertise to get an idea. With the support of his lawyer Jean-Lou Lévi, the contractor assembled a team to obtain his own expertise of the accident. Surrounded by a former Air France pilot, a former air traffic controller and a mechanic of the company, all settled in Castelsarrasin ... This trio of aeronautical experts spend months peeling, studying all data. They will go so far as to give justice the place, long unknown, of the crash. An incredible story that Michel Mommayou, who has also become an aeronautics enthusiast, unveils us today. An investigation that led him to an intimate conviction: the heavy responsibility of the commander of the AF 447. A thesis that the latest forensic expertise confirms to the chagrin of the president of the association of victims of the crash, Danièle Lamy . The latter hopes that this report essentially involving the pilots of Air France, exonerates neither Airbus nor Thales of their responsibility. Michel Mommayou has a different opinion ... Interview.
In contrast to the president of AF 447 - the association of families and relatives of the victims of the crash Rio - Paris - are you satisfied with the conclusions of the counter-expert report published last week?
When I read the report last Thursday, I was alone in the office of my company: I screamed, I cried! I have been waiting for that for almost nine years. I was afraid the truth would never break that it was stifled. With this counter-expertise, the investigating judge can not return to it.
For you there is no doubt it is a negligence of the drivers who is the cause of the crash?
I do not dispute that there was a problem with the probes (Pitot, manufactured by Thales for the A330). These were frosted and blocked for less than a minute. Many planes are equipped with these probes and they do not fall. Still, when the counter of your self loose, it is not for that that you necessarily end against a plane tree. What is certain is that the pilots and especially the captain were not up to the task. They were not able to cope with this incident and, more importantly, they did not divert early enough to avoid the storm cell on which the aircraft was heading.
How can you say it?
From the beginning of this business, I had the chance to know a former Air France pilot certified A 330 who is retired in Castelsarrasin. With my lawyer Jean-Lou Lévi, he has set up a work team in which we find a air traffic controller and a former Air France mechanic. They worked on the subject, sifting through the data, redoing the flight simulations, they came to the same conclusions as the counter-expert report that it was a pilot error and, above all, a carelessness. captain.
This is a serious accusation ...
It must then be explained why on the 9 aircraft that were in this sector, 8 were diverted to avoid the storm. Only AF 447 continued in this direction.
How do you explain it?
We have never heard of the pilots' briefing before take-off. This particular allows to check the weather ... Why? We simply doubt that it took place. It is a serious negligence of the Cdt especially in this intercontinental zone where it moves a lot. It is known that he slept only 1:30 the day before the flight. In the records of the black boxes, we hear him fourteen minutes before the crash telling his co-drivers: "You know what will happen in front of you (talking about the storm). I'm breaking myself (resting). " It is not because he is dead that he is not telling the truth. He has shown lack of professionalism.
What are you expecting now?
When the truth has exploded, I hope nothing more will happen, that the trial we all expect will take place. The experts who made these two reports agree ... Now it's enough!
The asso AF 447 is afraid that Airbus and Thales are not on the dock ...
My engine in this case: it's Virginia. My daughter would not let herself be done, nor me. The association since 2001, I do not belong there, I do not know where they are ... But we will not do an expert every two years. Stop!