Crash inquiry team hopeful for Concorde


Concorde tests on airworthiness could start by the end of February

PARIS, France -- Concorde crash investigators say they are moving closer towards recommending adjustments allowing aviation authorities to lift a ban imposed on the aircraft in August.

Presenting an interim report into the crash, Paul-Louis Arslanian, head of France's Bureau of Accident Investigations, said tests on whether Concorde flights could resume may begin as early as February.

Investigators believe a strip of metal on the Paris runway came from a Continental Airlines and caused the Air France Concorde jet's tyres to burst, leading to the devastating crash north of the city last July in which 113 people died.

Investigators have been working with technical experts from Continental and are seeking answers to questions about the maintenance of the plane that the strip is likely to have fallen from, said Arslanian.

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"It fell from the aircraft, and it seems this is not the first time that there was maintenance on this part," he said. "It does not necessarily mean the airline's maintenance is unsatisfactory. We have to do work on how this happened."

Arslanian said the bureau is still waiting for answers from Continental regarding maintenance but that the Houston-based airline has been co-operative so far.

Arslanian also said that tests on whether the Concorde was ready to resume flights could begin as early as the end of February.

Air France grounded its elite fleet immediately after the crash. British Airways, the other airline to operate the supersonic jet, kept its planes flying until shortly before the jets' airworthiness certificate was withdrawn in mid-August.

Authorities in London have said that tests on fuel tank liners, designed to greatly reduce the chance of fire, were expected to begin in February on British Airways' Concorde planes.

Investigators believe the metal strip fell from the plane just minutes before the doomed Concorde took off from the same runway. The strip gashed one of the Concorde's tyres, sending rubber debris hurtling toward fuel tanks and prompting a fuel leak and fire that brought the plane down.

Continental said on Friday that it continues to co-operate with the investigation even though the airline has not been able to examine the strip and thus was unable to confirm that it had come from one of its aircraft.

Meanwhile, a German lawyer representing dozens of relatives of victims said on Monday negotiations with the airline on compensation have broken off and he plans to sue.

"What Air France offered was absolutely unacceptable," Berlin lawyer Burkhard Koetke said. Relatives are seeking between 600,000 marks and seven million marks ( $300,000 and $3.5 million).

Koetke said the lawsuit would be filed in New York, which was the doomed plane's intended destination. Lawyers representing other victims are still negotiating with the airline.

The Associated Press & Reuters contributed to this report.