Two executives from Continental Airlines and three technicians from Air France have been summoned to appear before a French court investigating whether criminal charges should be brought over the July 2000 Air France Concorde crash. It follows the announcement that the causes of the July 2000 accident near Paris Charles de Gaulle airport were a metal strip lying on the runway that had detached from a Continental McDonnell Douglas DC-10, and a Concorde design inadequacy. Judge Christophe Regnard has ruled that the primary cause of the accident, in which a tyre exploded during take-off, damaging a wing fuel tank which caught fire, was a titanium strip which had fallen from the DC-10 and cut the tyre, starting the accident chain of events. A major contributory factor was the thinness of the Concorde's fuel tanks, which made them vulnerable to damage, the judge ruled. Continental's lawyers said last week that "it strongly disagrees that anything Continental did was the cause of the Concorde accident."
Source: Flight International
