Continental Airlines Convicted (of Manslaughter Charges) in Concorde Jet Crash Trial

[Turborama]

Source: Bloomberg

December 06, 2010, 5:44 AM EST

Dec. 6 (Bloomberg) -- Continental Airlines Inc. was convicted of manslaughter charges for the deaths of 113 people in the crash of the Concorde 10 years ago outside Paris and fined 200,000 euros ($265,700).

Continental’s negligence caused the fireball that crashed the plane, ignited when the supersonic jet’s tire ran over a piece of metal debris fallen off of an earlier flight by the U.S. air carrier, a court in Pontoise, France, said today. John Taylor, a Continental mechanic, was also found guilty and received a 15 month suspended sentence and a 2,000-euro fine.

The verdict comes seven years after the Concorde’s last commercial take-off, the program’s end hastened by the crash. Flights were grounded for 16 months after the disaster and the plane returned to service as air travel demand dropped off following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Traffic never recovered on the supersonic plane, favored by celebrities including Princess Diana and former Beatle Paul McCartney.

The Houston airline merged in October with Chicago-based United Airlines to form United Continental Holdings Inc., the world’s largest carrier.

Read more: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-12-06/continental-airlines-convicted-in-concorde-jet-crash-trial.html

[James48]

1. So..since corporations are people, according to the Supreme Court,

when will United Airlines (successor to Continental) report to prison for it's crime?


I'm waiting for that answer....

[groundloop]

2. That verdict forgot to mention design flaws in Concorde

Aircraft blow tires on occasion, that's a simple fact of operating in the real world. A blown tire shouldn't be able to bring down the plane, as it did in the case of Concorde.

[hedgehog]

3. Wouldn't the airport be responsible for ensuring the runways are clear of debris?

No fan of Continental here - I thought this was about the crash of the commuter plane near Buffalo. Poorly paid pilots with limited training operating on little sleep sounds like negligence to me!

[groundloop]

4. Impossible to clean runway after each flight.

In this tragedy it is claimed that a piece of debris fell off a Continental jet, and that debris was what caused a tire to blow out on Concorde. Then, cords from the spinning blown out tire ruptured Concorde's fuel tank. This has nothing to do with pilot training, etc.

[TheMadMonk]

6. And a blown tyre shouldn't decapitate other road users, but it's...

...been known to happen.

Yes fuel tank punctures as a result of blown tyres and other incidents were a known problem with Concord. However, in this specific instance, a below specification bodge job part falling of another aircraft was the direct cause of the blown tyre that punctured the fuel tank.

Even over an above good design, aircraft safety demands absolute confidence in the parts used. Aircraft part subsitution is ABSOLUTELY TABOO. Once that bodged up part was discovered, crappy design of the Concord became an entirely secondary consideration.


Strange as it may seem air safety authorities would far prefer see bad design than dodgy parts. Bad design CAN be corrected, dodgy parts all too often are only discovered in the middle of debris fields.

[formercia]

5. I wonder if any civil suits will result from this n/t

[Trekologer]

7. This verdict is all about scapegoating someone other than the French

The trial completely ignored the facts that the metal debris sat on the runway for several DAYS--the airport failed to find/remove the debris, the Air France mechanics failed to re-install a spacer in the landing gear, causing increased friction on the tires and potentially contributing as much, if not more, to the tire blowout than the debris did, the Air France technicians overfilled the airplanes fuel tanks so that they were under more pressure than they should have been, and the design flaw in the airplane that can cause the fuel tank to rupture from an impact of an object (such as blown tire debris) to the underside of the wing--which happened on the Concorde at least two times prior.

No, this was about shifting the blame off the French airport authority, French mechanics, French technicians, and French engineers.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

8. No, they do this to everybody

The French treat all transportation accidents like a criminal matter, but the Continental DC-10 which was responsible took off only two minutes before the Concorde, not days. The criminal investigation also implicated Air France and Airbus employees. These guys were ready to throw air traffic controllers in prison after an Air Inter pilot programmed the autopilot to fly into the side of a mountain. The pilot who crashed and survived AF296 was thrown in jail and banned from flying for 8 years.

It is a stupid system, especially since it discourages the cooperation of people who might have useful but self-incriminating information but it is applied universally.