If you’re not up on the July 25, 2000 Concorde accident and the trial that has finally begun in France, you might want to review Jacques Clouseau, à Votre Service, Monsieur before continuing.
"Concorde has crashed. Round up ze usual suspects."
The Bureau Enquêtes-Accidents (BEA), the French accident investigation agency and Air France, the operator of the accident aircraft, are determined to blame someone, anyone, not connected with Air France for the accident.
Like the scene from Casablanca, Captain Renault told BEA he would “round up the usual suspects.” At the top of the list was Continental airlines and a couple of hapless Houston mechanics who had installed a titanium wear strip July 9 on one of the engines of a Continental DC-10.
As I reported earlier, the titanium wear strip fell off the DC-10 as it took off from Paris and it was found on the runway used by Concorde.
However, as I also reported, the plane was on fire 8 seconds before it could have struck the wear strip, so BEA may have a tough time sticking Continental with the rap.
Titanium wear strip blamed for destroying 100-ton Concorde. (Length about 44 cm)
Just in case Continental’s lawyers are able to persuade the court it was not Continental’s fault, the French prosecutors have a back-up plan. They also are trying to blame the airport runway maintenance crew at Charles de Gaulle airport.
According to the prosecutors, the runway maintenance crew had not inspected the runway for debris since 5AM. They were supposed to inspect the runway 3 times a day.
But the Continental DC-10 took off around 4:35PM just 5 minutes before Concorde. So even if the maintenance guys had conducted another inspection, what are the odds that they would have done so precisely at the time between the DC-10 departure and the Concorde departure?
To make matters worse, Concorde was already behind schedule, a faux pas majeure when passengers are paying a premium for supersonic transportation. If the maintenance crew had asked to close the runway for inspection they would have been told to wait until after Concorde took off. The maintenance guys haven’t been charged yet but odds are they will be if the French can’t nail Continental.
This trial is not a matter of money. It is a matter of French and Air France pride and hubris. If found guilty, Continental faces a maximum fine of about half a million bucks—not chump change but pretty paltry when you figure the trial is costing the French about $4 million. If the five individuals already charged (two Houston-based Continental mechanics, one former French air safety official, and two former Aerospatiale employees) are convicted of involuntary manslaughter, each would face a fine of $100,000 and five years in jail.
As I said earlier, no one at Air France, which maintained, loaded, fueled, dispatched, and flew the aircraft has been charged with anything.
I’ll keep an eye on the trial but I think it’s pretty much a kangaroo court. (No, wait a minute, that’s where they’d hold the trial if it had been a Qantas aircraft). Sorry.
This entry was posted on Friday, February 5th, 2010 at 6:38 PM and is filed under Commentary. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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J’accuse!
If you’re not up on the July 25, 2000 Concorde accident and the trial that has finally begun in France, you might want to review Jacques Clouseau, à Votre Service, Monsieur before continuing.
"Concorde has crashed. Round up ze usual suspects."
The Bureau Enquêtes-Accidents (BEA), the French accident investigation agency and Air France, the operator of the accident aircraft, are determined to blame someone, anyone, not connected with Air France for the accident.
Like the scene from Casablanca, Captain Renault told BEA he would “round up the usual suspects.” At the top of the list was Continental airlines and a couple of hapless Houston mechanics who had installed a titanium wear strip July 9 on one of the engines of a Continental DC-10.
As I reported earlier, the titanium wear strip fell off the DC-10 as it took off from Paris and it was found on the runway used by Concorde.
However, as I also reported, the plane was on fire 8 seconds before it could have struck the wear strip, so BEA may have a tough time sticking Continental with the rap.
Titanium wear strip blamed for destroying 100-ton Concorde. (Length about 44 cm)
Just in case Continental’s lawyers are able to persuade the court it was not Continental’s fault, the French prosecutors have a back-up plan. They also are trying to blame the airport runway maintenance crew at Charles de Gaulle airport.
According to the prosecutors, the runway maintenance crew had not inspected the runway for debris since 5AM. They were supposed to inspect the runway 3 times a day.
But the Continental DC-10 took off around 4:35PM just 5 minutes before Concorde. So even if the maintenance guys had conducted another inspection, what are the odds that they would have done so precisely at the time between the DC-10 departure and the Concorde departure?
To make matters worse, Concorde was already behind schedule, a faux pas majeure when passengers are paying a premium for supersonic transportation. If the maintenance crew had asked to close the runway for inspection they would have been told to wait until after Concorde took off. The maintenance guys haven’t been charged yet but odds are they will be if the French can’t nail Continental.
This trial is not a matter of money. It is a matter of French and Air France pride and hubris. If found guilty, Continental faces a maximum fine of about half a million bucks—not chump change but pretty paltry when you figure the trial is costing the French about $4 million. If the five individuals already charged (two Houston-based Continental mechanics, one former French air safety official, and two former Aerospatiale employees) are convicted of involuntary manslaughter, each would face a fine of $100,000 and five years in jail.
As I said earlier, no one at Air France, which maintained, loaded, fueled, dispatched, and flew the aircraft has been charged with anything.
I’ll keep an eye on the trial but I think it’s pretty much a kangaroo court. (No, wait a minute, that’s where they’d hold the trial if it had been a Qantas aircraft). Sorry.
Like this:
This entry was posted on Friday, February 5th, 2010 at 6:38 PM and is filed under Commentary. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.