Description

On 25th July 2000, a Concorde being operated by Air France on a passenger charter flight from Paris CDG to New York JFK caught fire as it rotated for take off from runway 26R in normal daylight visibility and subsequently failed to maintain altitude as the fire continued. The aircraft soon lost height and was destroyed by impact with a hotel situated just over 3 nm from the upwind end of the runway. All 109 occupants and four other persons on the ground were killed and 6 other people on the ground were injured.

Investigation

An Investigation was carried out by the French Bureau d'Enquêtes et d'Analyses (BEA) with specific assistance from the UK AAIB because of the unusual shared responsibility for the aircraft type certificate between the UK and France. A preliminary report was published on 31 August 2000 followed by Interim Reports on 15 December 2000 and 10 July 2001.

In addition to the BEA "Technical Investigation" on July 26 2000, the French Government established a special “Commission of Inquiry” which “assisted the BEA in its work”. It was noted that eleven meetings had been held at which the Commission was informed of the progress of the BEA Investigation and, following discussion, it had then “approved the reports”. Also, in accordance with French law, a Judicial Inquiry in respect of the Accident took precedence over the BEA investigation and so all BEA activity at the accident site and examination of the various parts of the aircraft “were performed in coordination with those responsible for the judicial inquiry, strictly adhering to the procedures of that inquiry”. In this connection, “the accident site and the various parts of the aircraft (had remained) constantly under the control of the judicial authorities”.