Concorde safety in the spotlight

From staff and wire reports

Concorde had enjoyed a relatively good safety record before this crash, but its history had not been without incident.

The original life span of the Anglo-French aircraft, which was introduced into commercial service in 1975, was only supposed to be up to 15 years.

But in 1997, at the age of 22, the UK's Civil Aviation Authority gave British Airways' seven-strong fleet a 20-year extension. Air France officials have said in the past that their current fleet is fit to fly until 2007.

In January this year, a BA Concorde was forced to make two emergency landings at London's Heathrow Airport.

In the first incident, the jet, carrying 100 passengers on a charter flight around the Bay of Biscay, made an emergency landing after the flight crew reported that a cockpit warning light indicated a fire.

Less than 24 hours later, engine failure on the same aircraft forced it to make an unscheduled landing at the same airport.

In August 1999, it was revealed that two British Airways Concorde aircraft had been involved in a "near miss" over New York. The incident occurred at 2,000 ft near JFK International Airport as one plane from London was preparing to land while another took off for London.

The planes, travelling at 200 mph, passed just 800 ft apart. BA described the incident at the time as a "non-event," adding that pilots of both aircraft had visual contact and were fully aware of the situation.

In May 1998, seven Concorde aircraft were checked by engineers and then cleared for service after a New York flight had to return to Heathrow an hour into its journey. The supersonic plane, carrying 62 passengers, returned to London after a 4 ft by 2 ft panel became dislodged from a wing.

In 1997, a BA Concorde flight to New York suffered an "engine surge" which caused a bang and lights to go out. The aircraft also dropped suddenly. Pete Townsend, guitarist with The Who pop group, was a passenger and said afterwards he would never fly on Concorde again. He said: "I was just glad to land in one piece."

Again in 1997, two transatlantic flights in the space of a week were disrupted -- in the first incident a Concorde had to dump fuel and return to JFK International Airport, New York, and another suffered a power surge on a flight from Barbados.

Earlier this week, it emerged that a British Airways Concorde was taken out of service after a crack developed in its wings. Six others were also found to have cracks in the rear of their wings. The cracks were deemed to pose no risk to safety.

Concorde: The supersonic airliner

British Airways : Concorde

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