BUELACH, Switzerland (AP) — A three-judge court yesterday acquitted 19 top executives and consultants accused in the collapse of Switzerland's former national carrier Swissair and ordered the government to pay compensation totalling more than $2.5 million.The defendants in Switzerland's largest corporate fraud trial denied from the start charges that included damaging creditors, mismanagement, making false statements and forging documents. Some have blamed the big Swiss banks and the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks for the airline's downfall.

Former employees and others in the courtroom were angered by the ruling.

Swissair was abruptly grounded on October 2, 2001, after months of financial problems left it unable to pay for fuel and landing fees. Tens of thousands of passengers were stranded world-wide. Thousands of employees and many shareholders lost their life savings.

Prosecutors sought prison for Mario Corti, the last chief executive of now-defunct parent SAirGroup, and a range of suspended sentences for 18 other airline executives, board members and consultants. In addition to the acquittal, the defendants will receive compensation payments ranging from $16,000 to $400,000 for Corti.

Prosecutors said they had yet to decide whether to appeal the acquittal before the 10-day deadline.

"The court's task was not to judge the reasons that led to the downfall of Swissair," said Judge Andreas Fischer, adding that "the court had to stick to the accusations brought by the indictment."

Many of the business decisions taken by the former board members and top managers appeared to be reasonable at the time, the judge said. The prosecution also failed to prove that the defendants' actions had damaged the company, Fischer added.

Daniel Vischer, a lawyer and union leader, said "the prosecution was an absolute fiasco".

Urs Eicher, speaking on behalf of a flight attendants union, said he was especially concerned about the court-ordered compensation, which taxpayers would ultimately have to pay.

"Those who suffered real damage, the small people who lost jobs or pension funds in the Swissair bankruptcy, will get nothing," he told Swiss TV.

Attorneys for those charged in the case lauded the decision.

"I have expected the verdict and I'm satisfied," said Lorenz Erni, lawyer of former CEO, Philippe Bruggisser, who oversaw the airline's disastrous expansion strategy until he was forced out in January 2001.

Bruggisser, Corti and three other defendants were absent from the reading of the verdict.

"The court refused to submit to pressure from any side, but instead made its decision in appreciation of all the facts," a spokesman for Corti said in a statement.

Eric Honegger, a former CEO of SAirGroup, said pressure during the proceedings was immense. "The Swissair trial will stay with me until the end of my life," he told reporters outside the court room.

Most of the defendants did not testify because of ongoing civil suits brought by former employees and shareholders who seek hundreds of millions in compensation.