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Continental, welder guilty in Concorde crash trial
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Continental, welder guilty in Concorde crash trial
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By Thierry Leveque
PONTOISE, France (Reuters) - A French court Monday found Continental Airlines and a mechanic at the airline guilty of involuntary manslaughter for their part in the 2000 Concorde crash that spelled the end of the supersonic...
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Continental to appeal "absurd" Concorde verdict
8:56am EST
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Fernand Garnault (C), Air France's lawyer, speaks to the media after the verdict in Concorde trial at the courthouse of Pontoise, near Paris, December 6, 2010. A French court found Continental Airlines and a mechanic at the airline guilty on Monday of involuntary manslaughter for their role in the 2000 Concorde crash that grounded the supersonic airliner for good. 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.
Credit: Reuters/Benoit Tessier
By Thierry Leveque
PONTOISE, France |
Mon Dec 6, 2010 8:57am EST
PONTOISE, France (Reuters) - A French court Monday found Continental Airlines and a mechanic at the airline guilty of involuntary manslaughter for their part in the 2000 Concorde crash that spelled the end of the supersonic airliner.
In a ruling that could affect the way planes are maintained and inspected, the court said the U.S. airline and a welder were to blame for a small metal strip that dropped off a Continental aircraft onto the runway and ruptured a tyre on the Concorde, triggering the crash that killed 113 people.
The airline, now United Continental Holdings following a merger, and aerospace group EADS must split 70-30 any damages payable to families of victims, it said.
The verdict exposes Continental and EADS to damages claims that could run to tens of millions of euros if insurance companies seek reimbursal for sums already paid to relatives.
Continental was fined 200,000 euros by the court and welder John Taylor was given a 15-month suspended prison sentence for having gone against industry norms and used titanium to forge the piece that dropped off the plane.
Continental Airlines said it would appeal what it called an "absurd" verdict. Taylor's lawyer said he would also appeal.
"I do not understand how my client could be considered to have sole responsibility for the Concorde crash," lawyer Francois Esclatine told French iTele television.
The court said EADS, which now owns the French factories which partly built the Concorde airliners, had some civil liability in the crash, which hastened the end of an era of glamorous supersonic travel between London, Paris and New York.
EADS lawyer Simon Ndiaye said the company was still deciding whether to appeal.
The Air France Concorde, carrying mostly German tourists bound for a Caribbean cruise, was taking off from Paris on July 25, 2000 when an engine caught fire. Trailing a plume of flames, it crashed into a hotel near Charles de Gaulle airport.
All 109 passengers and four people on the ground died.
CONCERN OVER CRASH TRIALS
The trial has led to warnings in the aviation industry that taking crash investigations out of the hands of regulators and placing them in the courts could discourage workers from coming forward with information needed to prevent future accidents.
"Criminal trials are the wrong response to accidents because they are counterproductive when it comes to advancing safety and preventing accidents in the first place," said Kenneth Quinn, a former Federal Aviation Administration chief counsel.
"Regardless of the trial's outcome, the fact it is merely taking place already takes us down a slippery slope to more 'criminalized' crash probes, worldwide," he said in comments circulated before the Paris court gave its decision.
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Comments (1)
SanPa wrote:
So, the Michelin tyre was not puncture resistant? How can a court assign blame for a source of “road debris” when the subject vehicle is not designed to tolerate shrapnel from a disintegrating tyre?
Dec 06, 2010 10:43am EST -- Report as abuse
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