French pilots' union SNPL has praised the judicial report into the loss of Air France flight AF447, but is yet to judge whether the technical report will match it for objectivity.

The parallel investigations followed the crash of the Airbus A330 in the South Atlantic in June 2009.

SNPL and Air France have previously clashed with Airbus over the findings of the technical investigation agency, BEA, and each side is braced for the conclusions on the technical report due to be released by BEA on 5 July.

The president of SNPL, Yves Deshayes, says the legal report - focusing on the aircraft design, procedures at the time of the crash, the crew's functioning, and regulatory oversight - has proven "quite objective, more objective than the last BEA report".

He says the union has "tried to push hard" to ensure that the impartiality is maintained in the technical report, but is reserving opinions until the BEA discloses the details.

Source: Air Transport Intelligence news