Air France and Airbus were today found guilty of the 'corporate manslaughter' of 228 people on a packed passenger jet after it was revealed that two out three pilots had been sleeping.Five Britons and three Irish doctors were among those killed in the 2009 disaster – the worst in French aviation history – on the flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris.Excerpts from recorded conversations between pilots David Robert, 37, Pierre-Cedric Bonin, 32, and Marc Dubois, 58, revealed that only the junior Bonin was awake when the plane first got into difficulty in a tropical storm.Chief accident investigator Alain Bouillard later wrote: 'If the captain had stayed in position through the Inter-tropical Convergence Zone, it would have delayed his sleep by no more than 15 minutes, and because of his experience, maybe the story would have ended differently.'But I do not believe it was fatigue that caused him to leave. It was more like customary behavior, part of the piloting culture within Air France.'On Thursday – 17 years on – the Paris Appeals Court found Air France and aircraft manufacturer Airbus guilty of 'corporate manslaughter' in connection with the doomed Flight AF447.The Airbus A330 vanished from radars on June 1st 2009, and its wreckage was only found two years later after a search over 3,860 square miles, using underwater robots.All 12 crew members and 216 passengers died because of a combination of technical failure involving the jet's sensors and the pilots' inability to react to the plane stalling. A group of marines recovering debris from the missing Air France jet at the Atlantic Ocean on June 8, 2009 Workers unloading debris, belonging to crashed Air France flight AF447, from the Brazilian Navy's Constitution Frigate in the port of Recife, northeast of Brazil, Sunday, June 14, 2009It plunged into the sea at a speed of 11,000ft per minute, French investigators later concluded. The pilots had been confused by faulty air-speed readings, and mistakenly pointed the nose of the plane upwards when it stalled, instead of downwards.Black box recordings revealed one of the cockpit crew saying: 'Damn it, I don't have control of the plane, I don't have control of the plane at all!'The captain can then be heard saying: 'No, no, no… Don't climb… no, no.'The co-pilot then says: 'Damn it, we're going to crash… This can't be happening!'Seconds later the cockpit voice recorder stops.An enquiry then led to investigators concluding that the crash was caused by Air France pilot error, and technical problems with the Airbus.Despite this, judges initially dismissed the case against both the airline and the plane manufacturer in August 2019.Another court then cleared the companies in April 2023, before they were found guilty after this latest appeal.Prosecutors accused Air France of failing to provide sufficient training in how pilots should react in case of malfunction of the Pitot tubes, which enable pilots to monitor their speed.The pilots probably reacted incorrectly when the plane stalled after the speed sensors froze over.Among those who died on the Airbus was Graham Gardner, an oil worker from Gourock, in Renfrewshire, and Arthur Coakley, an engineer from Whitby in North Yorkshire.Alexander Bjoroy, an 11-year-old boarder at Clifton College in Bristol, also perished, as did PR executive Neil Warrior.The three young Irish doctors who died were returning from a two-week holiday in Brazil. Daniele Lamy, president of victims' families association Entraide et Solidarite AF447, arrives at the courthouse on Ile de la Cite in Paris ahead of the verdict in the trial of Airbus and Air France on charges of manslaughter in connection with the 2009 crash Airbus lawyer Antoine Beaucquier arrives at the courthouse on Ile de la Cite in Paris ahead of the verdict in the trial of Airbus and Air FranceSince the disaster, pilot training on dealing with technical breakdown is said to have been stepped up by Air France. Following the appeal reversal, the companies will pay the maximum fine of £195,00 each for the civil offence, despite victims' families saying it is not enough.During their closing arguments in November, the prosecutors said the companies' behaviour had been 'unacceptable', accusing them of 'pouring out nonsense and pulling arguments out of thin air'.Both Airbus and Air France had repeatedly denied the charges, and there may be further appeals because of the reputational damage caused.