French court to hear appeal in Concorde crash case

A second trial in the July 2000 Concorde crash opens in Paris Thursday, with Continental Airlines and other defendants appealing against conviction. Continental was deemed responsible by a lower court in 2010 for the catastrophe which killed 113 people. The supersonic jet is thought to have rolled over a titanium strip on take off from Charles de Gaulle airport. Judges ruled the strip had fallen onto the runway from one of Continental’s jets. It apparently flew up and punctured Concorde’s fuel tanks causing it to spew kerosene which caught fire, downing the plane. Continental was fined 200,000 euros and ordered to pay one million euros to Air France owner of the doomed jet. Several former employees are also appealing. Their lawyers claim that Concorde had design flaws that made it vulnerable and that its owners should never have let it take off.