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Nothing is verified here but it is interesting how the French backed down last month.
Doomed: THE REAL STORY OF FLIGHT 4590
David Rose
It is an indelible image, heavy with symbolism: the photograph taken on25 July 2000, at the moment Concorde became a technological Icarus. The greatwhite bird rears up over runway 26 at Charles de Gaulle, immediately aftertakeoff. Already mortally wounded, flames bleed uncontrollably from beneath theleft-hand wing. Less than two minutes later, the worlds only supersonicairliner will fling itself into the Paris suburb of Gonesse, killing all 109 onboard and another five on the ground.
The official investigation has focused almost entirely on the fire. Accordingto the French accident investigation bureau, the BEA, it broke out when theplane passed over a strip of metal on the runway. A tyre burst; a chunk ofrubber thudded into a fuel tank inside the wing; jet fuel poured out of a holeand ignited.
The hot gases caused two of the engines to falter, and despite a valiantstruggle by Captain Christian Marty, a daredevil skier who once crossed theAtlantic on a windsurf board, the loss of thrust made the crash inevitable.
An investigation by TheObserver suggeststhe truth is much more complicated. In the words of John Hutchinson, a Concordecaptain for 15 years, the fire on its own should have been eminentlysurvivable; the pilot should have been able to fly his way out of trouble. Thereason why he failed to do so, Hutchinson believes, was a lethal combination ofoperational error and negligence. This appears to have been a crash with morethan one contributing factor, most of which were avoidable.
Go back to that photograph. An amazing picture: but where was it taken?The answer is: inside an Air France Boeing 747 which had just landed from Japan, and was waiting to cross Concordes runway on its way back to the terminal.Its passengers included Jacques Chirac and his wife, the President and firstlady of France , returning from the G7 summit.
Concorde looks to be nearby because it had been close to hitting the747, an event which would have turned both aircraft into a giant fireball.Veering wildly to the left, like a recalcitrant supermarket trolley with ajammed wheel, Concordes undercarriage had locked askew.
When Marty pulled back on the control column to raise the nose and taketo the air the process pilots call rotation the planes airspeed was only188 knots, 11 knots below the minimum recommended velocity required for this manoeuvre.
But he had no choice: the plane was about to leave the tarmac altogetherand plough into the soft and bumpy grass at its side. That might have rippedoff the landing gear, leaving Concorde to overturn and blow up on its own. Ifnot, the 747 lay straight ahead. So he took to the air, although he knew he wastravelling too slowly, which would impair the damaged planes chances of survival.
Shocking evidence now emerging suggests that the Air France ConcordeF-BTSC had not been properly maintained. The airlines ground staff had failedto replace a spacer a vital component of the landing gear which keeps thewheels in proper alignment. Although the BEA disputes it, there is compellingevidence that it was the missing spacer which may have caused the plane to skewto the left, so forcing Marty to leave the ground too early.
At the same time, the plane was operating outside its legally certifiedlimits. When it stood at the end of the runway, ready to roll, it was more thansix tonnes over its approved maximum takeoff weight for the given conditions,with its centre of gravity pushed dangerously far to the rear. Even before theblowout, Marty was already pushing the envelope.
Doomed: THE REAL STORY OF FLIGHT 4590
David Rose
It is an indelible image, heavy with symbolism: the photograph taken on25 July 2000, at the moment Concorde became a technological Icarus. The greatwhite bird rears up over runway 26 at Charles de Gaulle, immediately aftertakeoff. Already mortally wounded, flames bleed uncontrollably from beneath theleft-hand wing. Less than two minutes later, the worlds only supersonicairliner will fling itself into the Paris suburb of Gonesse, killing all 109 onboard and another five on the ground.
The official investigation has focused almost entirely on the fire. Accordingto the French accident investigation bureau, the BEA, it broke out when theplane passed over a strip of metal on the runway. A tyre burst; a chunk ofrubber thudded into a fuel tank inside the wing; jet fuel poured out of a holeand ignited.
The hot gases caused two of the engines to falter, and despite a valiantstruggle by Captain Christian Marty, a daredevil skier who once crossed theAtlantic on a windsurf board, the loss of thrust made the crash inevitable.
An investigation by TheObserver suggeststhe truth is much more complicated. In the words of John Hutchinson, a Concordecaptain for 15 years, the fire on its own should have been eminentlysurvivable; the pilot should have been able to fly his way out of trouble. Thereason why he failed to do so, Hutchinson believes, was a lethal combination ofoperational error and negligence. This appears to have been a crash with morethan one contributing factor, most of which were avoidable.
Go back to that photograph. An amazing picture: but where was it taken?The answer is: inside an Air France Boeing 747 which had just landed from Japan, and was waiting to cross Concordes runway on its way back to the terminal.Its passengers included Jacques Chirac and his wife, the President and firstlady of France , returning from the G7 summit.
Concorde looks to be nearby because it had been close to hitting the747, an event which would have turned both aircraft into a giant fireball.Veering wildly to the left, like a recalcitrant supermarket trolley with ajammed wheel, Concordes undercarriage had locked askew.
When Marty pulled back on the control column to raise the nose and taketo the air the process pilots call rotation the planes airspeed was only188 knots, 11 knots below the minimum recommended velocity required for this manoeuvre.
But he had no choice: the plane was about to leave the tarmac altogetherand plough into the soft and bumpy grass at its side. That might have rippedoff the landing gear, leaving Concorde to overturn and blow up on its own. Ifnot, the 747 lay straight ahead. So he took to the air, although he knew he wastravelling too slowly, which would impair the damaged planes chances of survival.
Shocking evidence now emerging suggests that the Air France ConcordeF-BTSC had not been properly maintained. The airlines ground staff had failedto replace a spacer a vital component of the landing gear which keeps thewheels in proper alignment. Although the BEA disputes it, there is compellingevidence that it was the missing spacer which may have caused the plane to skewto the left, so forcing Marty to leave the ground too early.
At the same time, the plane was operating outside its legally certifiedlimits. When it stood at the end of the runway, ready to roll, it was more thansix tonnes over its approved maximum takeoff weight for the given conditions,with its centre of gravity pushed dangerously far to the rear. Even before theblowout, Marty was already pushing the envelope.
