A Tunisian pilot who paused to pray instead of taking emergency measures before crash-landing his aircraft, killing 16 people, has been sentenced to 10 years in jail by an Italian court, along with his co-pilot.
The 2005 crash at sea off Sicily left survivors swimming for their lives, some clinging to a piece of the fuselage that remained floating after the ATR turbo-prop aircraft splintered upon impact.
A fuel-gauge malfunction was partly to blame, but prosecutors also said the pilot succumbed to panic, praying out loud instead of following emergency procedures and then opting to crash-land the plane instead of trying to reach a nearby airport.
Another five employees of Tuninter, a subsidiary of Tunisair, were sentenced to between eight and nine years in jail by the court, in a verdict handed down on Monday.
The seven accused, who were not in court when the sentences were handed down, will not be jailed until the appeals process has been exhausted. – ( Reuters)