Paris airport operator to be tried over 2004 terminal collapse
The operator of Charles de Gaulle airport will be tried for manslaughter over the 2004 collapse of a terminal in which four people were killed.
In a ruling issued this week, the investigating magistrate in the drawn-out case ordered that Aeroports de Paris (ADP) face trial, along with the construction, engineering and inspection companies involved in the building and certification of terminal 2E.
The ruling was made on Tuesday but only confirmed to AFP on Friday.
The accident at Charles de Gaulle took place 11 months after the curved terminal of concrete, glass and steel - which was designed by award-winning French architect Paul Andreu and cost 750 million euros ($886 million) - was inaugurated to universal acclaim.
ALSO READ: Paris attack victims remembered
On May 23, 2004, a 30-metre (33-foot) section of the roof of the departure lounge collapsed, killing four foreign travellers and injuring seven others. Two of the dead were from China and one each from Lebanon and Ukraine.
In 2005, an expert report blamed design and structural faults for the roof's collapse but did not apportion blame.
After multiple other expert reports, prosecutors in 2014 recommended that the ADP and the three other companies be prosecuted.
But the magistrate only gave the go-ahead for the trial this week.
ADP declined to comment.