Concorde Court case update coming

[2R]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-11923556
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A Paris court is set to give its verdict in a trial to determine any criminal responsibility in the crash of a Concorde supersonic jet 10 years ago.

US airline Continental is accused of involuntary homicide after a report found a piece of metal from one of its planes caused a tyre-burst in the jet.

The jet caught fire shortly after take off from Charles de Gaulle airport in July 2000, killing 113 people.

Two airline operatives and three French officials have also been charged.

Continental faces a fine of 175,000 euros (£150,000, $218,000) if it is found guilty of indirectly causing the Concorde crash through an act of negligence.

It was argued in the trial that a piece of titanium from a Continental Airlines DC-10 plane fell onto the runway just before the Concorde took off.

This piece of metal burst a tyre on the Concorde, sending up debris into the fuel tank which then caught fire.

Continental fiercely disputes this version, and during the trial its lawyer presented a different explanation for the crash, putting the blame on the jet's operator, Air France.

In addition to Continental and its two operatives, three French officials were also accused of indirect responsibility for the crash - for failing to enact proper safeguards following previous tyre-burst incidents on Concordes.

All the individuals face smaller fines and possible suspended jail terms.

The trial was supposed to conclude the protracted debates over responsibility for the crash, but Monday's verdict may still not be the end.

Air France paid out 100m euro in compensation to victims' families.

If Continental is convicted, the French carrier could decide to seek to reclaim that money from the American company.

It would be nice to see the Concorde fly again

[bizjets101]

http://www.concordesst.com/fleetoverview.html Concorde website.

[North Shore]

HArd to stick it all to Continental..IIRC, the F/E shut down the wrong engine in the fire drill which left them with only two operating...

It'd be great to see Concorde flying again, but it isn't going to happen. 1/4 the load of a 747 LHR-Kennedy, and the same fuel burn. Oil prices in 2000 averaged ~$28/bbl, now they are just over 3x that....

[shitdisturber]

HArd to stick it all to Continental..IIRC, the F/E shut down the wrong engine in the fire drill which left them with only two operating...

I wouldn't be that surprised if the French court did stick it to Continental; even though a bit of metal falling off an airplane comes under the category of "shit happens" since I highly doubt they can prove anybody was negligent in putting that piece of metal on. This is the french legal system though and strange things happen there; keep in mind, this is the country that in 1916 during World War I, when they were having problems with mutinies in their army, shot one in every ten men in the problem regiments, guilty or not. Using the now famous phrase, "pour encourager les autres."

[confuzed]

http://beta.ca.news.yahoo.com/french-co ... llion.html

Well I guess they did stick it to Continental and ESPECIALLY the mechanic! Wow! Without having read all the reports though, maybe someone can enlighten me. Was the mechanical problem/piece that fell off the DC-10 something that could've been found on a walk around??

[airway]

Continental guilty in Concorde crash, French court orders $1.4 million in fines
By Angela Doland, The Associated Press | The Canadian Press – 45 minutes ago

PONTOISE, France - Continental Airlines Inc. and one of its mechanics were convicted in a French court of manslaughter Monday because debris from one of its planes caused the crash of an Air France Concorde jet that killed 113 people a decade ago.

The Houston-based airline was ordered to pay Air France €1.08 million ($1.43 million) for damaging its reputation, in addition to a fine of around €200,000 ($265,000). The victims of the crash were mostly German tourists.

The presiding judge confirmed investigators' long-held belief that titanium debris dropped by a Continental DC-10 onto the runway at Charles de Gaulle airport before the supersonic jet took off on July 25, 2000, was to blame. Investigators said the debris gashed the Concorde's tire, propelling bits of rubber into the fuel tanks and sparking a fire.

The plane then slammed into a nearby hotel, killing all 109 people aboard and four others on the ground.

Ronald Schmid, a lawyer who has represented several families of the German victims, said he was "skeptical" about the ruling.

"It bothers me that none of those responsible for Air France were sitting in the docks," he told The Associated Press by phone from Frankfurt.

The airline and mechanic, John Taylor, were also ordered to jointly pay more than €274,000 ($360,000) in damages to different civil parties.

Taylor was also handed a 15-month suspended prison sentence, and a €2,000 ($2,650) fine. All other defendants — including three former French officials and Taylor's now-retired supervisor Stanley Ford — were acquitted.

The court said Taylor should not have used titanium, a harder metal than usual, to build a piece for the DC-10 that is known as a wear strip. He was also accused of improperly installing the piece that fell onto the runway.

Continental's defence lawyer, Olivier Metzner, confirmed the carrier would appeal. He denounced a ruling that he called "patriotic" for sparing the French defendants and convicting only the Americans.

"This is a ruling that protects only the interests of France. This has strayed far from the truth of law and justice," he said. "This has privileged purely national interests.

Continental spokesman Nick Britton, in a statement, echoed that sentiment, and said the airline disagreed with the "absurd finding" against it and Taylor.

"Portraying the metal strip as the cause of the accident and Continental and one of its employees as the sole guilty parties shows the determination of the French authorities to shift attention and blame away from Air France," he said, noting that Air France was state-run at the time.

Roland Rappaport, a lawyer for the family of Concorde pilot Christian Marty and a pilots union, said the verdict was "incomprehensible" and asked why blame was heaped on Continental mechanics when French officials were aware of weaknesses on the Concorde around two decades before the crash.

"This trial made clear that the Concorde, this superb plane, suffered from severe technical insufficiencies, problems with the fuel tanks that were known since '79," he said outside the courtroom.

The fine delivered against Continental surpassed the €175,000 ($231,000) fine sought by a state prosecutor, who had requested 18-month suspended prison sentences for both Taylor and Ford.

The prosecution also requested a two-year suspended sentence for Henri Perrier, former head of the Concorde program at former plane maker Aerospatiale. It argued for acquitting French engineer Jacques Herubel and Claude Frantzen, former chief of France's civil aviation authority.

While France's aviation authority concluded the crash could not have been foreseen, a judicial inquiry said the plane's fuel tanks lacked sufficient protection from shock and said officials had known about the problem for more than 20 years.

The families of most victims were compensated years ago, so financial claims were not the trial's focus — the main goal was to assign responsibility. It is not uncommon for such cases to take years to reach trial in France.

Continental is now part of Chicago-based United Continental Holdings Inc., which was formed in October as the holding company owner of United and Continental airlines, which will eventually be combined into a single airline.

In France, unlike in many other countries, plane crashes routinely lead to trials to assign criminal responsibility. It is common for cases to drag on for years.

In 2009, France's highest court finally confirmed the acquittal of all those originally accused of responsibility in an Air Inter crash that killed 87 people in 1992 — 17 years earlier.

___

Kirsten Grieshaber contributed to this report from Berlin.
...

[CpnCrunch]

That is just completely insane...

[YXDWings]

I'm not going to even attempt to comment on the verdict but hopefully this can finally come to an end so the families can just move on. It was a sad incident then and remains just as sad today.

[J31]

Hmmm…… the only aircraft in the world that was completely destroyed after hitting a small piece of metal on the runway. Air France and Aerospatiale knew about weak points on Concord and chose to ignore them. What a shame, a great aircraft had to kill a bunch of people to get the designers to fix known weaknesses.

A quote from: Continental guilty in Concorde crash, French court orders $1.4 million in fines
By Angela Doland, The Associated Press | The Canadian Press

“While France's aviation authority concluded the crash could not have been foreseen, a judicial inquiry said the plane's fuel tanks lacked sufficient protection from shock and said officials had known about the problem for more than 20 years.”

“Could not have been foreseen”……give me a break! They had several incidents where tire failures damaged the fuel tank structure. Fuel was pouring out of the wing and they could not see that as a potential catastrophe?

Of course Continental should be taken to task for installing unapproved parts. But they did not set out to take down an aircraft let alone Concord.

Lots of ass covering going on there!

[Bushav8er]

Yeah, and Canadian runways aren't long enough when AF longs long...

[peeelot]

Good old Air France Blaming someone else. CO fault for the Concord, YYZ faults for not having a long enough runway, I would like to see what their excuse is for the last crash. They will probibly blame airbus becuase the autopilot flew into a thunderstorm. It would be nice for them to take responsibilty for their mistakes.