Der Absturz der Concorde - Protokoll einer Katastrophe 3/3
Video from the channel rwsrwsrwt about Concorde, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 13:19. Language: German. Video type: Documentary.
What it's about
Third and final part of a German television documentary about the crash of Air France Flight AF 4590's Concorde on 25 July 2000. This instalment gathers the criticisms of the official account of the investigation and ends with the recollections of relatives and indirect survivors of the tragedy.
Historical context
According to the calculations presented in the documentary, the aircraft took off 1.8 tonnes above the maximum permitted weight: it was carrying 1,200 kg of fuel in tank number 11 and 19 undeclared pieces of luggage. It also took off with a tailwind and was missing a spacer on the landing gear. Two former French Concorde crew members, a captain-instructor and a flight engineer, claim that tyre number 2 had already failed before hitting the metal strip. They base this on firefighters who reportedly saw smoke about 900 metres before the 1,724-metre point where the report places the impact. Neither Air France nor the BEA, the investigating body, accepts that version. The documentary also recounts that the aircraft nearly collided with a Boeing 747 arriving from Tokyo carrying President Jacques Chirac.
Key facts
It recalls the incident of 14 June 1979 in Washington, in which another Air France Concorde suffered a tyre burst and a punctured tank, although the fuel did not ignite. After the accident, the entire fleet was modernised, including tyres and tanks. Even so, demand fell, and British Airways and Air France retired the aircraft in 2003. Almost all the remaining examples ended up in museums.