Air France Concorde flight 4590 takes off with fire trailing from its engine on the left wing
Posted on 01/23/2010 5:47:00 PM PST by bruinbirdman
US airline Continental will present an alternative cause of the 2000 Concorde crash when the carrier faces manslaughter charges in a French court next month.
The airline, two of its staff and three other individuals are due to stand trial on February 2 accused of manslaughter over the July 2000 crash of the supersonic aircraft which claimed 113 lives.
Air France Concorde flight 4590 takes off with fire trailing from its engine on the left wing
Investigators have concluded that the cause of the accident was a metal strip left on the runway from a Continental plane.
This strip - known as a wear strip which is attached to the interior casing of an engine - is thought to have shredded a tyre on the Air France Concorde as it took off in Paris.
Fragments from the tyre punctured the supersonic aircraft's fuel tanks, with the plane bursting into flames and crashing.
But today Continental said: ''Continental Airlines welcomes the opportunity to refute in court the theory that a wear strip from one of its aircraft was the cause of the Concorde accident.
''The evidence will show that neither Continental nor its employees were responsible for the accident. It will show that there was a fire on the Concorde before it reached the point on the runway where it supposedly rolled over the wear strip, and that a series of issues relating to the Concorde itself and its abnormal operation that day made the tragic accident unavoidable.''
All 109 people on board, and four people on the ground, were killed in the accident, which led to a 16-month suspension of Concorde services by Air France and British Airways.
The manslaughter trial, likely to last at least three months, is being heard at a court
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
Well here’s a good example of something we don’t want from Europe. They think the strip is the cause of the accident. Based on that they want to convict people of manslaughter.
Suing individual mechanics? Only the French would go to that extreme. Go after Continental as an entity and be done with it.
Ten years later... Wow I remember that day... I see the poor mechanic is going to get violated..Well if it his fault then yes...
Easy, cowboy. His work needs to be co-signed by another mechanic, and SOPs, DPs and company culture all have to be looked at. That's why I say if they want to sue, let them go after the company, not a $70,000 employee.
I know that he wasn’t President yet but somehow it will turn out to be Bush’s fault.
Would you say that the prosecution’s theory is plausible, or that their evidence is muchy stronger than just plausible?
This is just more Gallic arrogance.
That’s a very good point, and one that I failed to consider. But I still wonder if their theory is plausible, or if they are grandstanding.
Yes, and yes.
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