Blair to fly by Concorde to Washington

Tony Blair will travel on Concorde to Washington next week on the first day the supersonic jet flies passengers from Britain since last year's air disaster.

Mr Blair is expected to charter the plane to fly to the US capital next Wednesday afternoon, hours after an inaugural flight from London to New York carries business passengers and journalists.

All Concorde jets were grounded last year after the crash outside Paris, which killed 113 people.

A spokesman for the Prime Minister said it was "very likely" Mr Blair would travel on Concorde.

But he added: "It won't be the inaugural flight, it would be a separate charter."

All commercial flights on BA and Air France Concordes were halted after the disaster last July, when an Air France jet hit a metal object left on the runway at Paris' Charles de Gaulle airport, bursting a tyre.

Fragments of the tyre penetrated the fuel tank, leading to a catastrophic fire which caused the aircraft to crash on to a hotel about 10 miles from Paris.

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

Last month, a BA Concorde successfully completed its first full transatlantic flight, from Heathrow to Kennedy airport in New York. and both BA and Air France have completed a number of test flights over the past year to help check new safety modifications.

The inaugural flight on November 7 will be followed by the resumption of fare-paying flights on November 9.