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Post by Randall Lord on Mar 24, 2009 15:32:46 GMT -5
A Tunisian pilot who paused to pray instead of taking emergency measures before crash-landing his plane, 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 said the pilot had succumbed to panic, praying out loud instead of following emergency procedures and then opting to crash-land the plane instead 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, will not spend time in jail until the appeals process has been exhausted. www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/5043287/Pilot-who-paused-to-pray-in-crash-landing-sentenced-to-10-years-in-jail.html
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