French Court to Try Continental Airlines and Five Others over Concorde Crash

By Aaron Poehler

Published on July 03, 2008

Paris prosecutor Marie-Therese de Givry has filed manslaughter charges against Houston-based Continental Airlines along with five individuals in connection with the 2000 Concorde jet crash left 113 people dead.

Along with Continental Airlines, Continental mechanic John Taylor, Continental chief of maintenance Stanley Ford, Aerospatiale director Henri Perrier, former Concorde chief engineer Jacques Herubel, and Claude Frantzen of the French civil aviation authority were identified as defendants in the case.

In 2004, French investigators concluded that the July 25, 2000 crash of Air France Flight 4590 was caused by a titanium metal strip which fell off of a Continental Airlines DC-10 onto a runway at Charles de Gaulle airport and punctured the Concorde jet's tires as it attempted to take off. The Concorde's fuel tanks were also determined to be insufficiently shielded from shock, a defect Concorde's makers were reportedly aware of since 1979.

Continental, which has consistently denied responsibility for the crash, vehemently denounced the indictments in an official statement and characterized the charges as "outrageous" and "completely unjustified." If found guilty in the case, said to be likely to begin in 2009, Continental could face a multi-million dollar fine.

Flight 4590 was the only fatal Concorde flight in the aircraft's 27-year history of regular service. The 2000 crash led to all Concorde airliners being withdrawn and refitted with additional safety modifications before being officially retired in 2003.

 

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