Air experts want Concorde to fly again

Experts are drawing up plans for modifications to the aircraft

PARIS (AP) -- Civil aviation experts from France and Britain expect Concorde planes to fly again, even though there is still only a "limited" understanding of what caused one to crash in July, killing 113 people.

In a statement following a meeting on Thursday, the French Civil Aviation Authority (DGAC) said authorities in both countries were determined to get the supersonic planes airborne again.

Air France grounded the elite aircraft immediately after the accident. British Airways, the only other airline to operate them, kept its planes in service until immediately before Concorde's certificate of airworthiness was withdrawn on August 16.

The French-British working group, set up last month to co-ordinate efforts by both countries, confirmed their joint aim to analyse as quickly as possible all available elements of the plane so that modifications can be envisaged, according to the statement.

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The group met with the Concorde's manufacturers, Aerospatiale and British Aerospace, the statement said.

It conceded that "knowledge of the facts and the chain of events (causing the crash) is today still limited." It said that inquiries were concentrating on the destruction of tyres, the fuel leak, following damage to the fuel tanks, and the origin of the fire that sent flames streaming down the length of the fuselage just after the aircraft took off.

A preliminary report on the crash issued on August 31 by France's Accident and Inquiry Office, or BEA, described how a left forward tyre was probably destroyed by a stray length of metal on the runway, sending pieces of rubber towards the fuel tanks contained in the Concorde's delta-shaped wings.

On Monday, the BEA said the 43-centimetre (17-inch) metal strip apparently came from a Continental Airlines DC10 that took off about four minutes before the Concorde. The BEA described the strip as part of a hood on a thrust reverser.

On Wednesday French Transport Minister Jean-Claude Gayssot said he was convinced that Concorde, which crosses the Atlantic at twice the speed of sound, will fly again.

He told Europe 1 radio: "The Concorde isn't washed up. If you want my deep conviction, the Concorde will fly again."

He added, however, that it would not leave the ground until appropriate security measures are in place.

Gayssot has maintained that the chain of events that set the Concorde plummeting, in flames, into a small hotel less than two minutes after takeoff had to be unlocked.

There has been no public indication that civil or judicial investigators are close to fully understanding what doomed the Concorde and why.

Air France Chief Executive Officer Pierre-Henri Gourgeon raised the possibility on Monday that the Concorde could be airborne by May 2001. "May would seem to be the earliest possible date," he told reporters.

Thursday's meeting in Paris was the second by the working group, which met last month in London and is to meet again in the British capital at the beginning of October, the French statement said.

President Jacques Chirac, meanwhile, named the nine deceased crew members of the doomed Concorde flight knights of the Legion of Honour, France's top honour.

Copyright 2000 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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British Airways
Aerospatiale
British Aerospace
BEA
French Ministry of Transport
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Air France
UK Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions

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