Concorde Paris Crash - Continental guilty

Continental Airlines and one of its mechanics were this week found guilty of criminal negligence in causing the French Concorde crash that killed 113 people 10 years ago.  Air France Flight 4590 was a flight Paris Charles do Gaulle Airport, Paris to New York.  On 25 July 2000 it crashed in Gonesse, France shortly after take off. All one hundred passengers and nine crew on board the flight perished. On the ground, four people were killed.

A Paris court ruled on 6 December that the company and mechanic John Taylor must pay fines over the July 2000 disaster.  Taylor was also given a 15-month suspended prison sentence. All other defendants were acquitted in the verdict.

Investigators said a Continental DC-10 dropped titanium debris on the runway at Charles de Gaulle airport before the Concorde took off.  The debris cut the Concorde's tyre, hurling bits of rubber into the fuel tanks and starting a fire.  The airline was fined £170,000, and Taylor £1,700.  Three former French officials also facing manslaughter charges were acquitted.

While France's aviation authority concluded the crash could not have been foreseen, a judicial inquiry said the plane's fuel tanks lacked sufficient protection from shock and that airline officials had known about the problem for more than 20 years.  The families of most of the crash victims were compensated years ago, so financial claims were not the trial's focus - the main goal was to assign responsibility. It is not uncommon for such cases to take years to reach trial in France.

Continental is now part of Chicago-based United Continental Holdings , which was formed in October as the holding company owner of United and Continental airlines, which will eventually be combined into a single airline.  The court also ordered Continental to pay Air France £847,000.