Crash Concorde 'was overweight' on take-off

The Concorde which crashed last year weighed a little more than it should have done when it took off but this did not cause the tragic accident which claimed 113 lives, an interim accident report said today.

The weight discrepancy came about because fuel consumption as the Air France supersonic plane taxied at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris was lower than normal, said the report.

‘‘The aircraft took off with slightly excess weight, however ... this did not change aircraft performance on take-off,’’ said the report, from the French air accident branch, the BEA.

Today’s document, the second interim report from the BEA, was published just two days before the first anniversary of last year’s crash, in which the Concorde plunged to the ground in flames just after taking off from Paris.

All 109 passengers and crew were killed, as were four people on the ground.

None of Air France’s or British Airways’ Concordes has been in passenger service since last summer, although a BA Concorde completed a successful test flight last week.

Today’s report gave more details of the tyre burst which led to the crash.

The BEA said the initial loss of thrust on engine one on the Concorde appeared to be due to the ingestion of tyre debris, while the second loss of thrust, also during take-off, was due to ingestion of aviation fuel and hot gases from the fire which developed.

When the engine had practically recovered normal thrust, a further ingestion, in flight, of hard objects and a mixture of hot gases and aviation fuel led to its final loss of thrust, the report said.

The shut down of engine two resulted from application of the ‘‘Engine Fire’’ procedure by the crew - which was justified by the almost total loss of thrust.

Tests of the metallic strip found on the runway in Paris and which is thought to have caused the tyre burst have shown that it bore ‘‘a close relation’’ with a piece of engine cowling missing from a DC-10 of American carrier Continental Airlines.

The report added that runway tests with tyres identical to those installed on the crashed Concorde running over a metallic strip of the same shape as that found on the runway reproduced damage similar to that observed on one of the Concorde tyres.

The BEA added that tests to try to reproduce the fuel tank rupture which occurred in the crash had ‘‘not managed to reproduce the phenomenon’’.

The BEA said it hoped to publish its final report ‘‘in the coming months’’.

Subject to aviation authority clearance, both BA and Air France hope to resume Concorde passenger flights later this year.