Bureau Enquêtes-Accidents (BEA) engineers predict that it will take at least six months to identify and re-assemble all of the parts of the crashed Aerospatiale/BAe Concorde which are crucial to the investigation. Only then, they say, can a serious analysis of the precise cause of the crash begin.
Meanwhile, representatives of the UK and French aviation authorities along with two accident investigation agencies are attending an intergovernemental meeting in Paris on 13 November to review the inquiry's progress.
The UK Civil Aviation Authority confirms that it has received confirmation, from the manufacturers, of the agreement reached on 2 November regarding the scope of the work required to make Concorde less vulnerable to future tyre bursts (Flight International, 7-13 November). This will be discussed at the meeting.
Assembly of the left wing, which was damaged and caught fire in the accident on 25 July, is essential to establish the precise nature and pattern of the damage started by the tyre burst, and how this led to the flaming fuel leak.
The airframe examination is proceeding in a hangar at Le Bourget Airport, Paris. Nos 1 and 2 engines, which were also damaged when the tyre burst occurred, are being examined at a site outside Paris. This examination is equally important because it was the shutting down of one engine and the loss of power in the other which, more than any other factor, rendered the supersonic airliner uncontrollable.
Source: Flight International
