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Authorities Begin Investigation Into Concorde Crash; Germany Mourning Its Dead

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JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN ANCHOR: An investigation into the first-ever crash of a supersonic Concorde is well under way. The Air France jet went down in flames outside Paris Tuesday, killing 113 people.

Let's go live now to CNN's chief international correspondent, Christiane Amanpour, for the latest.

Christiane, new information today?

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: New information and indeed dramatic new images. As you mentioned, the first video images of the Concorde disaster emerged today. The amateur video captured Concorde Flight 4590's final seconds. It shows smoke and flames trailing the jet as it hurtles to the ground, and moments later, it shows a plume of smoke rising after the impact.

Now, investigators continue to comb the wreckage site for clues to the disaster. They are also pouring over and analyzing the two flight data recorders to try to get exact details of what happened. But Air France today revealed that the pilot of the doomed flight had asked for a last-minute repair on engine No. 2, one of Concorde's four engines. That was completed and then the pilot took off.

And according to local officials here, a local prosecutor familiar with the investigation, less than a minute after takeoff, the control tower radioed the Concorde and told the pilot "fire on board." We understand the pilot responded that he knew he had a failure of engine two, the engine that had been repaired just before takeoff.

He reportedly indicated that he was trying to steer the plane toward Le Bourget Airport, which is quite close here to Charles de Gaulle. But what we've seen and what we heard from eyewitnesses yesterday show that as the plane was in that swerve it then crashed into a ball of flames onto the ground.

Today, a memorial service was held in the town of Gonesse near the crash site. President Jacques Chirac attended to pay his respects, and he met the families, not only of the victims, many of them were Germans, but also of the people who were killed on the ground when Concorde plunged into a hotel and devastated that hotel.

Investigators have also collected the remains of many of the victims, and they have been taken to the local forensic lab close to this airport for identification -- Judy.

WOODRUFF: Christiane, who will be in charge of this investigation? Who will be involved?

AMANPOUR: Well, in terms of the actual personnel, we have French investigators and also German teams of investigators, as we know the majority of the victims were German tourists. And so the Germans have sent investigations. Indeed some more arrived today from the Ministry of Transport. The French Ministry of Transport is involved, the civil aviation is involved, and the forensic experts that are generally involved in these kinds of disasters and catastrophic crashes are involved in all of this. So it is a team effort here.

WOODRUFF: All right, CNN's Christiane Amanpour, reporting from Paris. Thank you.

Well, as Christiane said, of the 100 passengers on board the Air France jetliner, all but four were Germans, beginning a holiday trip. They were remembered Wednesday at a memorial service in Hanover, Germany.

Here's CNN's Matthew Chance.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Germany is mourning its dead, and this service is the country's first official display of grief for the victims of the Concorde tragedy.

Gathered here in a small chapel at the Expo 2000 World Fair in Hanover, the German leader, Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, spoke of the country's respect and sorrow for the lives lost.

GERHARD SCHROEDER, GERMAN CHANCELLOR (through translator): We are standing here powerless and we can only show our respect, our sorrow for the victims. This is our only way out.

CHANCE: Leading the service in prayer, senior figures of the Protestant and Roman Catholic Church, both calling on the German people to keep their faith in God, but both also dwelling on the tragedy that tore so many people from joy and expectation to death.

HORST HIRSCHLER, LOWER SAXONY BISHOP: It's a very moving and terrible event. They are flying to holidays and the next moment they are dead. I think that's so terrible that we only can do a service.

CHANCE: For churchmen and officials of the German government gathered here, this is a public show of deep loss.

(on camera): It was a solemn memorial, but one attended mainly by officials of the German government. Very few members of the public were present and there were no relatives of crash victims.

Across Germany, though, over the coming days, there may be more emotional gatherings if and when the remains of loved ones are eventually brought home. Matthew Chance, CNN, Hanover, Germany.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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