American Plane Linked To Concorde Crash

American Plane Linked To Concorde Crash


The crash of the Air France Concorde outside Paris in July may have been caused by a strip of metal from a Continental Airlines aircraft.

Airline officials have confirmed to French air accident investigators that a DC-10, which took off shortly before the doomed Concorde flight, has a piece of metal missing similar to that found on the runway after the crash.

Investigators believe that Concorde hit the 17-inch metal strip at nearly 200 miles an hour as it took off from Roissy-Charles de Gaulle airport on July 25. The impact burst a tire, shredding it into fragments of rubber that either ruptured a fuel tank or damaged the engines causing an uncontrollable fire.

The supersonic aircraft crashed into an hotel two minutes later killing all 109 people on board and four on the ground.

French air accident investigators said that Continental was co-operating fully with the investigation.

All Concordes have been grounded until modifications can be made as, under aviation rules, a single burst tyre should not bring down an aircraft.