France - Concorde trial

Concorde trial to open

Article published on the 2010-02-02 Latest update 2010-02-02 09:37 TU

Concorde flight 4590 crashed two minutes after take-off.
Photo: (Reuters)

The trial to determine who is responsible for a Concorde crash almost ten years ago is due to open in Paris on Tuesday. The crash of Flight 4590 in July 2000 killed 113 people, and has been widely regarded as the beginning of the end for supersonic passenger flights. The last Concorde flight was in 2003.

Continental Airlines is due to deny that a piece of metal that fell onto the runway from one of their planes is to blame for the crash, which killed all 109 people on board.

Air France’s Concorde was taking off from Charles de Gaulle airport when a wing and one of its engines caught fire. Soon after, it plummeted to the ground and hit a hotel in the Paris suburb of Gonesse. 113 people died in total, including four at the hotel.

Most of the passengers were German, due to embark on a luxury cruise after reaching New York. But their journey ended just two minutes after leaving the ground in Paris.

The crash caused the entire fleet of Concordes to be grounded before an inquiry determined that the plane’s tyre had burst, causing debris to rupture the fuel tank and start the fire.

Investigators say a shard of metal from a previous Continental flight caused the tyres to burst. A French public prosecutor then asked judges in March 2008 to bring charges of manslaughter against Continental Airlines.

Continental says the Concorde was not fit to fly, but Air France do not face charges. Air France compensated victims’ families on the condition that they would not bring charges.

Five individuals are facing the courts along with the airline. John Taylor was the mechanic who allegedly fixed the rogue metal strip to the plane. He is accused of using the wrong metal for the strip and not correctly securing it. The other accused are Stanley Ford, a Continental maintenance official, Jacques Herubel, Concorde’s former chief engineer, Henri Perrier, former head of the Concorde division at Aerospatiale and Claude Frantzen, a former member of France's civil aviation watchdog.

The trial is scheduled to last 53 days.