A French Polynesian airline has been fined $US15,000 for carelessness after it failed to immediately attend to a technical issue with one of its planes.
Photo: 123RF
The case relates to a Twin Otter Air Moorea flight to the Marquesas Islands 10 years ago.
Two technical staff received suspended prison sentences for allowing an aircraft to fly without assuring its flightworthiness.
The pilot, who reported the problem but kept flying the plane, has been acquitted.
Another Air Moorea plane had crashed on its way to Tahiti just months earlier, killing 20 people.
The judge said the crash had left a mark on the territory where air travel is a necessity.