Eight years after the supersonic catastrophe

Exactly eight years ago, on July 25, 2000, one of the worst disasters in the history of aviation occurred at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris. Air France Flight AF4590 - a Concorde - crashed just after takeoff, exploding in a fireball and killing 113 people - 109 on board and four in a hotel behind the runway onto which the plane fell.

The most likely cause - though there is still not enough evidence - was a small strip of metal that broke off the engine exhaust of Continental Airlines DC10 which had taken off a few minutes before the Concorde. The strip damaged one of the Concorde's tyres, causing it to burst. In a matter of seconds rubber parts hit the aircraft's fuel tank, which then broke, detaching an electric cable. Leaking fuel ignited, causing one of the Concorde's engines to lose power and compromising its climb. The stricken plane's descent was catastrophic .

France's Bureau Enquetes-Accidents (BEA) conducted an investigation, blaming Continental Airlines for illegally having installed the metal piece to the DC10 engine exhaust. Officials said this had been done in violation of the manufacturer's rules and remained the only weak link in the whole chain of events.

On July 3, 2008, BEA officials said that Continental Airlines as a company and five individuals would stand trial for the Concorde disaster. Two are employees of Continental Airlines - one a mechanic and the other a maintenance manager - the others are a manager of Concorde manufacturer Aerospatiale, an employee of the French airline regulatory authority and a Concorde chief engineer. The trial will be held in 2009, BEA said, and could last two to three months.

The French prosecutor has filed manslaughter charges against the five and the company.

"Continental remains firmly convinced that neither it nor its employees were the cause of the Concorde tragedy," spokeswoman Julie King said.

"We will defend ourselves vigorously against these charges."

However, the Concorde tragedy has been the beginning of the end of supersonic aviation. Only a few flights were carried out after the crash, at first only by British Airways. Normal commercial flights resumed by November 2001, until BA and Air France finally decided to stop Concorde operations by the end of 2003. In November 2003, the last ever Concorde flight took off. An attempt of British tycoon Richard Branson to purchase the ageing aircraft fleet for a symbolic price of one pound and keep them in service for nostalgic reasons failed to take off.

Now that the Concorde is history, the majority of the 19 remaining aircrafts of Air France and British Airways are on display in flight museums in Europe and the US. Air France donated one of its retired Concordes to the Sinsheim Technik Museum near Mannheim, Southern Germany. There is also a Tupolev TU-144 on display, making the museum the only place where both of the erstwhile supersonic rivals are shown.

The life of concorde

Early 1960s: Prototype construction of the Concorde was started by British Aircraft Corporation and French Aerospatiale.

1969: First test flights of Concorde No 001 conducted at supersonic speed of Mach 2.04 or 2,140 km/h

1971-72: Sales demonstrations in Europe, US, Asia, Mideast with 70 planes ordered by different airlines.

1973: Paris Air show features the Concorde as well as the competing Tupolev TU-144. The latter crashed due to an unsuccessful flight manoeuvre that killed 14 people, including the crew.

1974: The oil crisis lead to many order cancellations of Concordes. Finally only Air France and British Airways bought the supersonic aircrafts, with costs partly covered by state loans.

1976: Scheduled flights began on the routes from London to Bahrain and Paris to Rio de Janeiro via Dakar, Senegal.

1977: New York service started with an average flight time across the Atlantic of 3.5 hours. Both Air France and British Airways offered a daily service to New York until 2003.

1980s/1990s: A full commercial flight schedule was launched, including routes to other US cities, Barbados, Singapore, Mexico City, Acapulco as well as promotional round-the-world trips and charter flights.

July 25, 2000: Paris crash of Air France flight AF4590.

July 17, 2001: First test flights after the accident.

November 7, 2001: Normal passenger operations resumed with services to New York by both British Airways and Air France.

April 10, 2003: British Airways and Air France announce to discontinue the Concorde service due to high maintenance costs of the ageing fleet, high fuel costs and rising competition from more economical subsonic airliners.

Continental remains firmly convinced that neither it nor its employees were the cause of the Concorde tragedy. We will defend ourselves... against these charges"

Have you ever travelled aboard the Concorde? How was the experience? How long do you think it will take to have another supersonic airplane? Tell us at letter@editor@gulfnews.com