They will be four French companies, including ADP, manager of the paris airports, to be judged for the collapse of the pier of the terminal 2E of the airport of Roissy-Charles-de-Gaulle airport on 23 may 2004, causing the death of four people. This is apparent from the order for reference of the investigating judge drafted Tuesday and unveiled this Friday by Europe1.
The resistance of the arch structure under-estimated
In addition to ADP, developer (designer) and contractor (client), the companies Ingerop, Bureau Veritas group (the group inspection and certification) and GTM Civil Engineering and Services (subsidiary of Vinci) are referred to the correctional court of Bobigny for the offences of involuntary homicide and involuntary injury, according to the order of reference drafted on Tuesday.
He is accused of having under-estimated the low resistance of the arch, reinforced concrete structure, “very close to the ruins as soon as its design.”
The administrative investigation, conducted in the weeks following the tragedy, had found a defect of realization and design of the building, the section that collapsed was considered too fragile from the origin. The terminal 2E “was a innovative design and bold, but also complex and even risky”, but pointed to the investigators.
The experts have assessed at 50% the share of technical responsibility of ADP, compared to 25% for Ingerop, 15% for GTM and 10% for Veritas. In its order, the investigating magistrate, accused of ADP did not comply with a “precautionary principle increased” in the decisions that have led to the construction of a “large-scale project and innovative.”
The air terminal of Roissy had been inaugurated only eleven months before the tragedy.
“Amateurism of the project”
Gerard Chemla, lawyer of the national Federation of victims of terrorist attacks and accidents collective (Fenvac), the civil party in this folder, told AFP “regret” to see this decision to “intervene so long after the facts”. He now hopes a lawsuit “before the end of the first half of 2018”.
Criticizing the”amateurism of the project, which has changed throughout the building,” the lawyer believes that “in the construction of this terminal, you have lost sight of the security for the benefit of the prestige”. The terminal 2E, designed by architect Paul Andreu, also the designer of the Peking opera, had represented a total investment of the order of 650 million euros for ADP, including 150 million euros for the pier of embarkation where the collapse had taken place.
