Posted on 05/23/2004 8:05:08 AM PDT by nuconvert
Edited on 05/23/2004 8:06:45 AM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]
Deadly Paris Airport roof collapse
PARIS, France -- At least five people were killed and three others injured when a massive section of a vaulted ceiling collapsed at a new passenger terminal at Paris' Charles de Gaulle airport, officials said.
Slabs of concrete and metal came crashing down from the ceiling onto a seated waiting area at about 7 a.m. Sunday (0500 GMT/1 a.m. ET).
Part of the raised terminal structure then collapsed onto airport service vehicles underneath.
The collapse left a hole 50 meters (yards) by 30 meters in the long, tunnel-like building.
"It's like a scene after an earthquake," one firefighter said.
Officials said there was nothing to indicate a terrorist attack.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
French engineering coupled with French union construction ...a deadly combination.
Newsflash: Paris surrenders to itself.
Capitulation record unbroken!!
"For a brief terrifying second, I thought we might actually make it through without a white flag waving." DeVillepin stated.
French Surrender! To Gravity!
Saw this being built in 1998. You forgot the ashtray smell. Smoking right up to the gate. The flight there was fine, but my experience at that airport was the worst I've ever had.
As the former owner of both a Renault and a Peugeot, I couldn't agree more...
Take up smoking and you won't smell it.
I just got asked to ask you: "Did Tampa get the bridge plans from France?"
Seems like most things having to do with Chas DeGaulle don't work too well. Their new aircraft carrier lost a prop on its maiden voyage, and the flight deck is 30 meters too short. Another piece of worthless crap from the French.
I agree that it looks like a questionable design. The French go in for the chic postmodern look, of which the Pompideau Museum is a dreadful specimen.
Note that the arch curves in at the bottom. A normal dome is a half-circle or a half sphere, so that the compression vectors are transmitted straight down onto the supporting walls. In this case, the weight of the ceiling would, unusually, be pushing the supporting walls inward. That would require a series of beams along the top of the walls to counteract those forces--the opposite of rafters under a normal roof, whose purpose is to pull the walls inward against an outward force.
I'd be curious to know whether such beams were installed, or whether they were omitted so as not to spoil the artistic effect.
The support pillars collapsed. Did they fail first? The oval cylinder section looks more or less intact.
The structure is an ellipse. An ellipse is a sound shape to use for load bearing. This was probably caused by either shodding workmanship or a material flaw. (I wonder who's brother-in-law supplied the labor and/or the materials!) Judging by the exposed parts of the adjoining sections, the design itself looks fine.
You are right about Charles de Gaulle Airport. We landed there once & thought the pilot had become confused & landed in North Africa. I have never seen so many people wearing robes in my life.
Don't know. Here's another article........
Part of Roof at Paris Airport Terminal Collapses, Killing at Least Five
ROISSY, France (AP) - A huge portion of the vaulted roof of the new passenger terminal at Paris' Charles de Gaulle airport collapsed Sunday, killing at least five people and injuring three in a shower of concrete, glass and steel.
Tons of material from the roof of the futuristic, cylindrical Terminal 2E, which sits on pylons, fell onto a waiting area and pulled the outer walls down. Several parked cars underneath were smashed.
Transport Minister Gilles de Robien said there was nothing to indicate that a terrorist attack triggered the collapse just before 7 a.m., though the cause was not yet known.
Hundreds of rescue workers rushed to the scene, and temporary hospitals were set up on the tarmac and in the gleaming terminal, whose distinctive ceiling is honeycombed with hundreds of windows that bathe the interior with sunlight.
Authorities said that five people were definitely killed but that the number could reach six. They were all likely passengers, said Hubert de Mesnil, director general of Paris airports.
Rescue officials could not immediately access the area of the accident. However, search dogs indicated there were few, if any, bodies left under the wreckage, said Michel Sappin, prefect of the Seine-Saint-Denis region where Charles de Gaulle - France's biggest airport - is located just north of Paris.
"It looks pretty bad out there," said Amy Haight, 30, arriving from Houston with her husband, Nelson, for a friend's wedding. She said she saw the collapsed building and dozens of rescue vehicles as her plane landed. "It's so sad, it's so scary. My God, we're so lucky."
The accident occurred in an approximately 98-foot-long section of Terminal 2E that opened just 11 months ago, after at least two construction delays.
The French television station LCI said safety issues caused the delays, and there had been media reports that a huge light fixture fell as inspectors were checking the $890 million facility.
When it was finally opened, the long, tunnel-like terminal with arched roof and sleek design was considered a "prestige" site in the sprawling airport complex, said Pierre Graff, president of the Paris airports authority. "It was our showcase," he said.
The cause of the accident was under investigation, and Graff said there were warning signs right before the collapse.
"Some witnesses heard something cracking just before the collapse. There were cracks and some dust from the concrete," he said. The director-general of the Paris airports, Hubert de Mesnil, said there was "absolutely nothing" in the past to indicated a structural problem.
"It's the structure that gave way, the structure itself," he told reporters.
Interior Minister Dominique de Villepin, who inspected the site of the accident along with the transport minister, said there were five confirmed dead and "perhaps six." Paris Fire Dept. Chief Laurent Vibert confirmed that.
Officials had earlier said that six people were killed.
Terminal E2, which has slots for 17 planes, was being closed indefinitely, said Graff. He suggested the move would pose problems for arrivals and departures.
The tragedy comes as France braces for an influx of summer tourists.
President Jacques Chirac said he was requesting "that the necessary investigations be immediately started so that the causes of this accident can be determined as quickly as possible."
He expressed his "very deep compassion" to families of the dead and the injured, a statement from the president's office said.
Sappin, the prefect of the region, said there was only a moderate number of people coming and going in the area of the terminal at the time. An Air France plane coming from New York and another from Johannesburg, South Africa, had just landed, he said. Another Air France flight was taking off for Prague.
The identities of the victims were not immediately known, Sappin added.
The accident strewed concrete over an area about 50 yards by 30 yards. "There are several tons of concrete that collapsed in a structure in a waiting area that leads out to the airplanes," Paris Fire Dept. chief Vibert told The Associated Press.
"I'll be number four.
Urine smell? Check.
Rude workers? Check.
I'll add, I didn't much like the endless trail of motorized habitrails one must ride to get to the gate, only to sit in those horrid plastic chairs, like some half-assed, third-world bus station."
Add me to that list. The motorized walkways up and down were nice, but uhm, why do they go DOWN...flat...then back UP! Stupid.
The place stinks, bare concrete all over AND at the terminal, the bathrooms are on the other side of security! Take a leak, get re-screened! Annoying.
Looks like they ran utilities in the ceiling. The cylindrical structure looks relatively intact. If the ceiling collapsed, the weight of that and the utility ducts might have been enough to overload the piers and the whole section would have been dumped on the ground.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.