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French Court to Rule Today on Concorde Crash Manslaughter Appeal

Air France
Gemini Sparkle

Key Takeaways:

  • A French court is deciding whether to uphold a manslaughter conviction against Continental Airlines for the July 2000 Air France Concorde crash.
  • The original ruling attributed the crash, which killed 113 people, to a metal strip improperly attached by a Continental mechanic, which fell off a DC-10, punctured the Concorde's tire, and caused engine fires.
  • The criminal charges, rare in aircraft accidents, led to Continental and one of its mechanics being convicted in 2010, ordered to pay $2.7 million in damages, and contributed to the Concorde program's discontinuation in 2003.
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More than a dozen years after the July 2000 crash of an Air France Concorde supersonic transport (SST) outside Paris, a French court will decide today whether to uphold a manslaughter conviction against Continental Airlines.

The original ruling, which was appealed, held that a Continental mechanic improperly attached a metal strip to one of the airline’s DC-10s and the strip fell off on the runway at Charles de Gaulle Airport.

Mark Phelps

Mark Phelps is a senior editor at AVweb. He is an instrument rated private pilot and former owner of a Grumman American AA1B and a V-tail Bonanza.

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