Concorde and others on trial

[Kip Powick]

From CNN

Concorde On Trial

[Specs]

"....Five people, along with U.S. carrier Continental Airlines, are facing charges of involuntary manslaughter over the crash of Air France Flight 4590 on July 25, 2000...."

".....Judicial investigators found the strip was improperly installed on the DC-10 engine, prompting the charges against the airline and two of its American employees.

The other three people on trial are French officials who were responsible for the design, testing and certification of the Concorde.

According to the charges, they could have acted much earlier to head off well-known design flaws in the plane, including the lack of adequate protection for the fuel tanks.

Prosecutors are expected to present evidence of more than 60 tire blowouts over the Concorde's 25 years in service due to its higher-than-normal takeoff speeds. They are expected to say that in at least a half dozen of those cases, tire debris ruptured the plane's fuel tanks....."

I've seen this before in EU accidents where engineers or regulators have been charged with involuntary manslaughter. Anybody have some insight into the relevant legal code and an explanation.

[Specs]

Great photo here

Concorde - airliners.net

[Specs]

This will be interesting to watch. FOD is a factor at most airports and ultimately it is the responsibility of the airport operator, or so I believe, to clean it up from the runways. So in this case the French Authorities should be found at blame if it was indeed FOD that brought the aircraft down rather than a very serious design error.

Curiously - while everybody and his brother is facing the charges, nobody at Air France or the Airport is on trial. Seems kind of odd doesn't it?