Crash du Concorde : l’enquête qui a révélé ses failles cachées – Documentaire Crash Aérien- GPN
Video from the channel AIR TV - 100% aviation about Concorde, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 51:26. Language: French. Video type: Documentary.
What it's about
A French documentary about the accident of Air France flight 4590, the Concorde that crashed in Gonesse on 25 July 2000 shortly after taking off from Roissy-Charles de Gaulle, killing 113 people: the hundred German passengers, the nine crew members and four people on the ground. It reconstructs the day from the black boxes, with testimonies from the air traffic controller, relatives of the victims and passengers who changed flights in time, and then examines the aircraft's known weaknesses and doubts about the official version.
Historical context
According to the BEA investigation, a metal strip lost by a Continental DC-10 burst a tyre on the left-hand landing gear; a fragment pierced a tank and the kerosene caught fire, causing loss of power in the left-hand engines. The documentary recalls that the Concorde suffered around 70 tyre blow-outs in 24 years of service, and that on 14 June 1979, in Washington, an almost identical incident pierced several tanks without catching fire. The BEA then recommended reinforcing the tanks, a measure not applied until after 2000, and a Michelin radial tyre was never adapted to the aircraft.
Key facts
Two former Concorde crew members argue that the absence of a spacer on the left-hand landing gear, forgotten during maintenance, and an excess weight of around 1.8 tonnes worsened the accident, and cite firefighters who saw smoke 900 metres before the point of the metal strip. The BEA classified the oversight as a serious error, but not as a cause. The judicial investigation indicted Continental, former Aérospatiale officials and DGAC civil servants. Despite returning to service in 2001, Air France and British Airways retired the Concorde in 2003.