Concorde Flight 4590: Final Moments Before Crash

The Concorde, loaded with fuel for the trans-Atlantic flight, went down shortly after takeoff, crashing near the town of Gonesse, about 10 miles north of Paris, at 4:44 p.m. local time.
All 109 people on board were killed. Three children were among the passengers. Four people in a local hotel on died, with a dozen people on the ground injured.
A French judge ordered Continental Airlines and five people to stand trial for manslaughter in connection with the horrific crash of a Concorde jet that killed 113 people eight years ago in France, a prosecutor said July 2008.
Two of the people to be tried are employees of Continental, the prosecutor in the Paris suburb of Pontoise said in a statement.

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 No2 main gear wheel tyre is missing after the explosive burst and that un-burnt fuel is flowing from the ruptured tank. A few feet from the tank around the engine area the fuel appears to be being ignited from the fuel that is already burning. The initial cause of the ignition is believed to be from sparks derived from shorted wiring in the landing gear bay area.

French investigators blamed a titanium strip on the runway from a Continental Airlines DC-10, which took off just before the luxury jet.

John Taylor, a mechanic who allegedly fitted the non-standard strip is to stand trial for manslaughter. The titanium strip caused one of the Concorde's tires to burst, which sent debris flying into its fuel tanks. Continental's chief of maintenance Stanley Ford will also stand trial for manslaughter.
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.
Former Concorde officials Henri Perrier, 79, and Jacques Herubel, 73, are accused of knowing about problems with the jets and failing to detect and fix them. Claude Frantzen, 71, director of technical services at the civil aviation authority DGAC from 1970 to 1994, was also ordered to stand trial.



A special thanks to Youtube channel tgj1992 for this detailed description of events On 25 July 2000.

Previous to Concorde taking off that fateful day was a continental dc-10 headed for Washington. It was a metal strip from inside one of its engines that was to trigger the catastrophically unfortunate series of events. As Concorde was reaching take off speed it hit this metal strip puncturing the tyre of wheel number two on the port landing assembly. Pieces of rubber then began to ricochet of the undercarriage, soon piercing fuel tank cover 5. A major leak ensues and it is concluded that the kerosene is ignited due to the extreme heat experienced around the wheel assembly. Engines one and two are severely affected by the hot gases emanating from the burning kerosene which are continually being ingested, and they rapidly lose power. The plane is enveloped in flames and sufficient control is lost. The plane crashes and All 109 people on board are killed. Once a conclusion has been reached as to the cause of the incident, appropriate modifications are added such as stronger tyre's which are able to withstand piercing objects at take off speed and in the unlikely occurrence that one does get punctured kevlar sheilds are added to the lining of the fuel tank covers.

And also, thanks to Batteryjoe for his letter:

"...there are many more factors which contributed to this right of passage in aviation development. For starters, President Chirac's 747 crossed Concorde's path necessitating a premature rotation and consequent deleterious effects on Concorde's ability to remain airworthy. Engine two was shut down by accident, the ship was 6 tonnes overweight, and the spacer for one of the main landing gear was found in the shop after the accident."

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