France Concorde crash trial opens by Magdalena Rosova

US Continental airline and three French aviation official went on trial in France on Tuesday in connection with the crash of an Air France Concorde in July 2000, in which 113 people died. Almost ten years after legendary supersonic aircraft crashed shortly after it took-off, five people went to trial at courtroom in a Parisian suburb to re-examine the causes of one of the biggest aviation disaster. Two employees of US Continental Airline and three French aviation officials face charges of manslaughter of 113 people who died in the accident. One hundred of the victims were passengers, most of them Germans. The victims also included nine crew members and four hotel staffe! rs, who died as the plane rammed into a hotel two kilometers from the airport in Paris. Air France Concorde Flight 4590 The trial should examine causes of the crash. The official explanation says that the undercarriage tyre of the aircraft exploded as it rolled over a strip of titanium that dropped onto the runway from a Continental Airways plan that took off before the Concorde. The exploded tyre penetrated a fuel tank in the left wing and caused a fire and consequently the crash. Continental Airlines is blamed for using titanium, which is much harder than aluminium and also for a temporary repair on one of its aircraft, which is violation of security rules. Two employees of Continental Airlines, John Taylor and Stanley Fort, are accused of ignoring the titanium ban. Continental Airlines denies the accusations, saying that several witnesses saw Concorde catch fire 800 meters before it rolled over the titanium strip. Fact is that there were 65 cases of burst tyres on ! Concorde planes before the fatal crash. Continental's main l! awyer, O livier Metzner, claimed that it was a failure in the repairing of the Concorde's undercarriage, which caused the explosion of the tyre.

related story (sgx16389): http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia-pacific/2010/02/20102...

by Magdalena Rosova for SigEx Ventures (http://sigexventures.com)

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