French crash investigators today said for the first time that a piece of metal believed to have played a role in last July's Concorde disaster came from a Continental Airlines jet. The investigators also criticised maintenance on the US
plane.
In its latest report on the July 25 disaster which killed 113 people, France's Air Accident Investigation Bureau (BEA) corroborated an original theory that a tyre burst on the Air France.
The BEA said the tyre in question had been cut as it rolled over a small piece of metal found lying on the runway. For the first time investigators confirmed reports that the strip had dropped off a Continental Airlines DC-10 that had taken off from Paris' Charles de Gaulle airport minutes earlier.
The finding could prove important, with Air France and its insurers already pursuing Continental in the French courts for its alleged role in the accident.
A spokesman for Continental Airlines in London said his company had not been given access to the missing metal strip so could not confirm that it did indeed come from its DC-10.
The report said the strip found on the Paris runway appeared to have been attached to the DC-10 during repairs in Houston, 16 days before the Concorde disaster.
He repeated a previous company statement that a tyre burst alone should not be enough to down an aircraft and that the July crash therefore pointed to a serious design flaw with Concorde.
The Continental DC-10 took off from Roissy-Charles de Gaulle bound for Newark five minutes before the Concorde started its brief, doomed flight.
BEA investigators said debris from the burst Concorde tyre ripped open fuel tanks on the underside of the wing.
Escaping fuel caught fire and the plane was already ablaze as it lurched into the air. Around two minutes later, after failing to gain altitude, the Concorde flopped into a nearby hotel, killing all 109 people aboard and four people on the ground.
Concorde's air-worthiness certificate was suspended in August after investigators released their initial findings, and engineers are looking into ways of preventing a burst tyre from sparking such a disaster in future.
Air France insurers face multi-million dollar compensation claims arising from the crash and are hoping to recoup at least some of the costs from Continental. They launched legal proceedings against the company in November.
Under clause 141 of the international Civil Aviation Code, airlines are legally responsible for any parts that drop off their aircraft.
Reuters