Continental Airlines found guilty over Concorde crash

Continental was found guilty of “involuntary manslaughter” due to poor maintenance work and fined £170,000. Former Continental welder John Taylor was found guilty of the same offence and handed a 15-month suspended prison sentence.

The Concorde, carrying mostly German tourists, caught fire during take-off from Paris’s Charles de Gaulle airport in France on July 25, 2000, and crashed into a nearby hotel.

The accident ended the 27-year career of the supersonic Concorde, the fastest aircraft in the history of commercial aviation and a symbol of Franco-British cooperation in the field of aeronautical technology.

The disaster was caused by a strip of metal from a Continental DC10 which fell onto the Charles de Gaulle airport runway and punctured the Concorde’s tyres, the court ruled.

The blow-out sent rubber fragments flying into a fuel tank, setting it ablaze and sending the supersonic jet plunging into a hotel several miles away.

During the trial, Olivier Metzner, a lawyer for Continental, has said the airline has been unfairly saddled with the blame for the crash while investigators placed little emphasis on the role of Air France and European engineering firm EADS.

The court found three French aviation officials not guilty.

Prosecutors had been seeking a fine for Continental, now United Continental Holdings following a merger, and suspended prison sentences for a mechanic and his boss.

Judges delivered their verdict into the July 2000 crash at the Correctional Court in Pontoise, three miles from the crash site.

Concorde flights were grounded for 16 months following the crash. It returned to service as air travel demand was in decline following the September 11th 2001, terrorist attacks but traffic never recovered on the supersonic jet. The last commercial flight was in October 2003.