The Bureau Enquêtes Accident (BEA), the investigation agency charged with examining the crash of the Air France supersonic Concorde near Paris in July 2000, has released its final report. It confirms that the plane struck a metal piece on the runway, allegedly dropped from a Continental Airlines DC-10, as it was taking off, causing burst tires, and the explosion and fire which doomed the aircraft, killing all 109 persons on board and four on the ground.
Although the 400 page report singles out the 10 inch strip of metal from the Continental plane as the immediate case of the accident, it also noted that both Air France and Continental had committed “several dysfunctions” in their operations and maintenance procedures.
The remaining Concordes were grounded shortly after the crash until last October, when they were cleared to resume flights following major overhauls and refitting with improved tires and fuel tanks lined with puncture resistant Kevlar.
Continental has maintained that there’s insufficient evidence to connect its plane with the metal part, and that basic inadequacies in the Concorde’s design were the the underlying causes of the crash.
At stake are several hundred million dollars in claims and counter claims. Air France and its insurers have settled most of the claims with the families of the victims of the crash, under threat of numerous lawsuits in U.S. courts. But they still have a lawsuit pending in France against Continental for reimbursement of the amounts they’ve paid out. The BEA’s report bolsters their claim, which is also supported by French law. As yet no date has been set for a trial.
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