US airline Continental and five people will stand trial over the 2000 Concorde crash near Paris which killed 113 people, French judicial officials say.
The five are said to be two employees of Continental Airlines, two from Concorde maker Aerospatiale, and the French civilian aviation authority.
The trial will take place in two to three months' time, the officials say.
The plane caught fire after its tyres were punctured by a piece of metal on the runway from a Continental plane.
Accident inquiry
Rubber from the tyres ruptured the plane's fuel tanks shortly after take-off from Paris's Charles de Gaulle airport.
A French accident inquiry in 2004 found that the strip of metal had fallen on the runway from a Continental Airlines DC10 that took off just before the Concorde flight.
It is claimed that the metal was titanium, when safety rules dictated it should have been aluminium which is softer, and less likely to puncture tyres.
It is also claimed that Concorde's fuel tanks had a design defect that made them susceptible to damage.
All 109 people on board the Concorde flight and four people on the ground were killed.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/7487126.stm
Published: 2008/07/03 10:35:03 GMT
© BBC MMVIII
The five are said to be two employees of Continental Airlines, two from Concorde maker Aerospatiale, and the French civilian aviation authority.
The trial will take place in two to three months' time, the officials say.
The plane caught fire after its tyres were punctured by a piece of metal on the runway from a Continental plane.
Accident inquiry
Rubber from the tyres ruptured the plane's fuel tanks shortly after take-off from Paris's Charles de Gaulle airport.
A French accident inquiry in 2004 found that the strip of metal had fallen on the runway from a Continental Airlines DC10 that took off just before the Concorde flight.
It is claimed that the metal was titanium, when safety rules dictated it should have been aluminium which is softer, and less likely to puncture tyres.
It is also claimed that Concorde's fuel tanks had a design defect that made them susceptible to damage.
All 109 people on board the Concorde flight and four people on the ground were killed.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/7487126.stm
Published: 2008/07/03 10:35:03 GMT
© BBC MMVIII
