Sir James

Continental Airlines Charged With Manslaughter In French Court
Thursday July 3, 2008
CityNews.ca Staff

A French judge has ruled that Continental Airlines will go to trial in the wake of a crash that killed 113 people.

The Concorde jet, owned by the US carrier, crashed at Charles De Gaulle airport in July 2000. The deadly wreck took the lives of all 109 passengers and four people on the ground.

Eight years later, a Paris prosecutor has ordered the airline and five other people to stand trial for manslaughter.

Two of the people to be tried are employees of the U.S. carrier. Two others were employed by Aerospatiale, the maker of the Concorde. The fifth is with the French civilian aviation authority.

The prosecutor announced the order in a statement Wednesday.

Photo credit: Jack Guez/AFP/Getty Images.

acl65pilot

This is a real bad precedent to set for pilots in the Western world, and needs to be stopped.

RJtrashPilot

Wow. Amazing. Does any reporter check their facts anymore? Continental has never owned Concordes, and it was Air France that crashed, not Continental.

The way this article reads, you would think Continental owned the Concorde that crashed, when this is just not the case.

Lifeisgood

The piece of tire rubber that was laying on the runway and pierced the Concord's wing supposedly came off the CAL's DC10 that took off just a minute or so earlier.

Is that the charge?

rickair7777

No it was a titanium structural part which came off the CAL bird, not a piece of tire. Allegedly the mechanic who fabricated and installed the titanium part did not follow the manufacturer's procedure, but I have no knowledge of details or whether that had anything to do with the part falling off.

The titanium piece punctured the concorde's tire...exploding tire pieces then punctured the concorde's fuel tank.

CAL, the mechanic, and his supervisor are getting charged. I wonder if they will get arrested and extradited. Technically I think the US is obligated to do that.

My opinion is that the fault lies 100% with the idiots who designed an airplane that can be structurally destroyed by a tire blowout. This was not the first time a tire blowout had caused fuel tank ruptures on the concorde...just the first time the fuel burned.

Phuz

That's exactly right - FOD can come from anywhere at anytime and this very scenario should have been forseen by Aeropastiale. Regardless of what caused a blowout - if the plane couldn't handle the resulting debris impact then it shouldn't have been flying.

captjns

Periodic runway inspections are SOP at airports in Europe. In addition runway inspections were SOP prior to any Concorde departures.

One could argue that an element of contributory negligence is exists. Poor aircraft design by the manufacturers concerning the fuel tank protection for the Concorde, unauthorized repair on an aircraft by CAL, and an inadequate runway inspection prior to the Concorde’s departure by CDG's airport employee conducting the runway inspection.

So come on France step up to the plate and admit who should bear the majority of the blame.

Lifeisgood

Thank for the info.
Good luck, CAL.

loubetti

Concorde was also over gross and out of aft CG limits. It also had a part missing from its left landing gear (a spacer), and began the takeoff roll with a tail wind. Concorde should have been airborne before it hit that debris.

After the fire, the FE shut down the #2 engine, contrary to operating procedures, and without the permission of the captain.

It's interesting to note that the runway Concorde departed from was resurfaced shortly after the crash. This made it impossible to determine that Concorde most likely was suffering directional control problems, and perhaps even skidding before it hit that debris.

Needless to say, the French accident investigation report ignored almost all of this, but it was not missed be the British, who also conducted their own investigation, of course, with little cooperation from the French.

I attended a lecture by a recently retired BA Concorde captain in 2001 who spent quite some time on the subject of the chain of events that led to this crash and, he put essentially all the blame on Air France and the state that F-BTSC was in when it departed. Concorde was in trouble before it left the gate.

Here's an interesting article, one that echoes the lecture I attended:

Concorde: the unanswered questions | World news | The Observer

saabguy493

HA!!! The French, accepting blame?!?!? That is like saying that they would actually fight someone....