Manslaughter ruling over air crash that killed ex-Shropshire mother and son

A French judge has filed preliminary manslaughter charges against Airbus over the 2009 crash of an Air France jet which killed 228 people including a former Shropshire mother and her seven-year-old son.

Everyone aboard the Rio de Janeiro-Paris flight was killed when the Airbus A330 jet crashed into the Atlantic on June 1, 2009, including Rita Szarvas and her son Andras, who had spent two years living in Ludlow.

Airbus chief Thomas Enders told reporters in Paris that the preliminary charges were filed after judge Sylvie Zimmerman met Airbus lawyers. The preliminary charges allow for further investigation.

Sensors on the jet sent faulty air speed readings to the pilots, though the role of the sensors in the accident is unclear.

It is unusual for a planemaker to face criminal charges in a crash investigation. Authorities have been unable to find the flight recorders in the Atlantic.

Andras spent two years at Ludlow Infant School from 2006 while his mother worked at Megan Baker House at Moreton Eye, near Leominster. The pair, both Hungarian nationals, moved back to their homeland in 2008.

A special service was held at the school last year to mark the first anniversary of the tragedy, which saw Andras's father Georg Buslig and cousin Daniel Fuleki travel from Hungary to unveil a plaque alongside a cherry tree planted in a memorial garden.