Charges brought over Concorde crash

CONTINENTAL Airlines and five men went on trial yesterday for their alleged role in the crash of an Air France Concorde that killed 113 people in 2000 and ended an era of luxury supersonic travel.

The Concorde, carrying mostly German tourists bound for a deluxe Caribbean holiday cruise, was taking off in Paris on July 25, 2000, when an engine caught fire. Trailing a plume of flames, it crashed into a hotel in the town of Gonesse, 6km south-west of Charles de Gaulle airport.

Investigations found that a small piece of metal from a Continental aircraft that had taken off before the Concorde had punctured its tyres, sending debris into the sleek drop-nosed plane’s fuel tanks and setting off the fatal fire.