Der Absturz der Concorde - Protokoll einer Katastrophe 1/3

Video from the channel rwsrwsrwt about Concorde, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 14:58. Language: German. Video type: Documentary.

First of three parts of a German television documentary about the Concorde accident of 25 July 2000 in Paris. This part recounts the hours leading up to it and the two minutes of flight AF 4590. It mixes footage filmed by passengers, audio of the communications with the tower, and accounts from relatives and from air traffic controller Gilles Logelin, who had swapped shifts with a colleague that day.

That day two Air France Concordes were flying from Paris to New York, both carrying many German passengers who were going to board a luxury cruise. One was the regular morning flight; the other had been added because of demand and departed in the afternoon. A video enthusiast who had changed his booking to the first flight films the trip through to landing at John F. Kennedy airport. Among the passengers on the second flight was a group from Mönchengladbach. The documentary describes the Concorde as an aircraft that always flew at the limit: twice the speed of sound, Paris-New York in three and a half hours, and a fuselage that stretched about 20 cm during flight. According to the narrator, only 13 units were operated by British Airways and Air France.

The departure of the second Concorde was delayed by about an hour because a faulty engine part had to be replaced. The aircraft took off on runway 26 right with an 8-knot tailwind. From the tower they saw flames at the rear and warned by radio. The crew shut down the second engine, but the landing gear would not retract. The last message from the cockpit was that there was no time left. The aircraft crashed onto a hotel, and among the victims was a German flight attendant who had been called back from her holiday to look after the passengers.