French accident investigators working on the Aerospatiale/British Aerospace Concorde crash at Paris say the metal strip thought to have caused the fatal tyre burst came from a Continental Airlines McDonnell Douglas DC-10 which took off 4min before the Concorde.
The 430 mm (17in) strip of metal dropped off one of the aircraft's thrust reverser cowlings.
Prior to the discovery Aeroports de Paris had come in for considerable criticism as one of the airport's daily runway inspections had been postponed earlier because fire crews were carrying out a drill
The only movement between the DC-10 and the ill-fated Concorde flight was an Air France 747.
Source: Flight International
