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Continental Ordered To Face Trial In 2000 Concorde Crash
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Published: July 4, 2008
PARIS - PARIS - A French judge ordered Continental Airlines and five people to stand trial on charges of manslaughter for the 2000 crash of a Concorde jet that killed 113 people, a prosecutor said Thursday.
French investigators say the crash was caused in part by a titanium strip from a Continental Airlines DC-10 that was lying on the runway when the supersonic jet took off.
The judge's order outlines eight years of painstaking efforts to try to pin down who could be tried in court.
Two of the individuals to stand trial are employees of the U.S. carrier. Two others were employed by Aerospatiale, the maker of Concorde and the precursor of plane-maker Airbus. The fifth is an employee of the French civilian aviation authority.
The Air France Concorde crashed shortly after takeoff from Paris' Charles de Gaulle airport in July 2000, killing all 109 people on board.
French investigators have said a metal strip from the Continental airplane caused one of the Concorde's tires to burst. Debris from the force of the explosion punctured the jet's fuel tanks. The French judicial inquiry also determined the tanks lacked sufficient protection from shock - and that Concorde's makers had been aware of the problem since 1979.
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