A French judge has ordered Continental Airlines and five individuals to stand trial over the crash of an Air France Concorde SST on July 25, 2000, killing 113 people. The judge said the defendants, including the person who oversaw the development of the supersonic jetliner, would be charged with involuntary manslaughter. Continental has denied any responsibility for the fatal accident and said it will fight any charges.
The Concorde crashed after taking off from Charles de Gaulle Airport. The crash investigation concluded that a narrow strip of titanium had fallen onto the runway from a Continental DC-10 that took off before the supersonic aircraft. The debris burst a tire on the departing Concorde sending shrapnel into the aircraft’s fuel tanks, igniting a fire.
Air France filed a lawsuit against Continental following the discovery of the metal strip.
Among the five individuals who will face charges in a French court are two Continental technicians. A second person who worked on the Concorde development and the head of France’s civil aviation authority at the time of the crash were also ordered to stand trial.
A French prosecutor said the Continental workers had failed to follow normal procedures over repairs to the DC-10 and that Continental itself had been negligent in maintaining its fleet of DC-10s.
An earlier French judicial report said the Concorde’s manufacturer Aerospatiale, now part of plane-maker EADS, failed to correct its design after more than 70 incidents involving the plane’s tires occurred.
The prosecution says France’s civil aviation chief was also negligent because his agency had the responsibility to enforce design safety for the Concorde, which did not provide extra shielding to its underwing fuel tanks until after the 2000 crash.
The crash of New York-bound Flight 4590 was the only fatal accident involving the small Concorde fleet that was retired in 2003.
Flight Safety Foundation President and CEO William R. Voss said: “Like other recent and failed attempts to criminalize aviation accidents in France, these manslaughter charges appear rather dubious and short-sighted. Absent willful intent or highly egregious conduct, we seriously question the basis for putting companies and aviation professionals through the ordeal of criminal prosecutions. In addition, we’re very concerned criminal prosecutions will discourage the free flow of information from operators to management to regulators, to the detriment of aviation safety.”
In October 2006, the FSF, the Royal Aeronautical Society, l’Academie Nationale de l’Air et de l’Espace, and the Civil Air Navigation Services Organisation jointly signed the Criminalization Resolution decrying the criminalization of aviation accident investigation.