A NORTH Yorkshire widow has said she will take legal action after authorities released a preliminary accident report into the plane crash which caused her husband’s death.

Father-of-three Arthur Coakley, of Sandsend, near Whitby, was killed along with all 227 other passengers on an Air France flight to Paris in June 2009.

Mr Coakley, 61, was one of five Britons on the Airbus A330 when its engines stalled, causing it to lose speed and crash into the Atlantic.

French air accident investigation body, the BEA, said the plane plummeted at a rate of 180ft per second for about three-and-a-half minutes. A full report is expected later this year.

Mr Coakley’s widow, Patricia, said she believed everyone who had a loved one on the flight was preparing to take legal action against Air France.

She said: “You have to make a claim before two years have passed, so I have been working with the lawyers to ensure we meet that deadline.”

Airbus repeated its condolences to the friends and families of the victims and said it was committed to supporting the investigation.

“Airbus is confident that the successful recovery of the data contained by the flight recorder will help make air travel even safer,” it said.