Posted on 12/06/2010 12:13:58 AM PST by bruinbirdman
decade after a supersonic Concorde jet crashed outside Paris soon after take-off, killing 113 people, a French court will today rule on who, if anyone, is to blame.
The trial that started in February in Pontoise, northwest of Paris, reopened old questions over whether European engineers, or an American company, Continental Airlines, was responsible for the July 2000 crash of the European jet that symbolised elegance in trans-Atlantic air travel.
The verdict is expected on Monday morning.
In the years it took French judicial investigators to work their way to trial, amassing 80,000 pages of court documents, the Concordes were revamped, retired and finally sent to museums.
French judicial and aviation investigators concluded long ago that a Continental Airlines DC-10 dropped titanium debris onto the runway at Charles de Gaulle airport before the Air France Concorde took off – a metal strip that gashed the supersonic jet's tire and sent rubber pieces flying into the fuel tanks, causing a fire.
Continental contested that chain of events in court, calling up witnesses who testified the fire broke out before the plane reached the runway debris.
Houston-based Continental Airlines, Inc. and two of its US employees are on trial for manslaughter.
Three former French officials also face the same charge; judicial investigators say they had long failed to fix the Concorde's weak spots.
While France's aviation authority concluded the crash could not have been predicted, a judicial inquiry determined that the plane's fuel tanks lacked sufficient protection from shock and said officials had known about the problem since 1979.
On July 25, 2000, the Air France Concorde plunged into a hotel outside Paris soon after take-off, killing all 109 people aboard and four on the ground. Those aboard were mostly German tourists.
FENVAC, a French association that represents victims
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
Dang, never knew that. Are any DC10s still flying?
Continental Airlines and mechanic guilty in deadly Concorde crash (Paris 2000)
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