French court paves way towards 2000 Concorde Crash

French court paves way toward trial in deadly 2000 Concorde crash

ASSOCIATED PRESS
1:16 p.m. September 22, 2006
PARIS – France's highest court paved the way Friday for a trial of officials being investigated in connection with the 2000 crash of a Concorde jet that killed 113 people.
Three people are under investigation in the crash – Claude Frantzen, a former official at France's civil aviation authority, as well as Jacques Herubel and Henri Perrier, two former officials from Aerospatiale, the company that built the supersonic jet. Continental Airlines is also being probed.

The three officials and Continental had asked France's highest court to throw out the investigation. However, the court rejected their request Friday – paving the way for a trial in a criminal court. The magistrate investigating the case still must formally close the investigation and sign an order to send them to trial.

A lawyer for Perrier and Herubel said the investigating magistrate had never clearly explained why they were targeted.

“Just because you were director of a program for years doesn't mean you necessarily bear responsibility if there is an accident,” said lawyer Thierry Dalmasso.

The Air France Concorde crashed shortly after takeoff from Paris' Charles de Gaulle airport on July 25, 2000, killing all 109 people on board – mostly German tourists – and four on the ground.

Two French investigations concluded that a titanium strip left on the runway by a Continental Airlines DC-10 was to blame for the crash.

The metal strip caused one of the Concorde's tires to burst, which sent debris flying that punctured the jet's fuel tanks. The French judicial inquiry also determined the tanks lacked sufficient protection from shock – and that Concorde's makers had been aware of the weakness since 1979.

I think here in the US, the far left liberals always have a need to blame SOMEONE for EVERYTHING. France, follows that example. A shame.

I agree with you 100% and the French, perhaps not the average Maurice over there but France as a nation has no clue as to accountability it is always everyone elses fault and someone elses problem over there. Let them try as they are to blame elsewhere but lest we not forget that they failed to do the normal FOD check they used to do on the runway for the concorde over there. Incidents happen is the bottom line. Parts fall off of the most maintained airplanes things happen it is an unfortuneate coincidence that killed those folks but time for them to give it up