Luxair trial accused await sentencing

Four people could receive suspended prison sentences and three may be acquitted as the six-week Luxair trial draws to a close.

Wednesday marked the penultimate day in which evidence was heard in court, relating to the tragic Luxair Fokker crash in November 2002.

Responsibility for the tragedy, which resulted in the aircraft crash-landing into a field between Niederanven and Roodt-sur-Syre, will now be decided by a professional judge.

Among those who could be handed suspended prison sentences as recommended by the prosecutor was a pilot, who survived the crash.

He has been accused of gross negligence and could receive the highest suspended sentence of three and a half years as well as a fine.

Also in the dock were Luxair's former technical risk director, who could receive a two-year suspended sentence, a former chief and a former deputy chief engineer who may be given 18-month suspended sentences.

The prosecution has called for three former company CEOs, Roger Sietzen, Christian Heinzmann and John Donnat Calmes, to be acquitted, deeming that they played no role in causing the crash.

Summing up their case, the prosecution suggested that pilot error and a technical problem in controlling the aircraft were to blame for the tragedy.

The judge is expected to deliver a verdict on the charges and deliver sentencing in 2012.