Midnight Mike
2006-09-22, 10:16 PM
French court paves way toward trial in deadly 2000 Concorde crash
ASSOCIATED PRESS
1:16 p.m. September 22, 2006
PARIS France's highest court paved the way Friday for a trial of officials being investigated in connection with the 2000 crash of a Concorde jet that killed 113 people.
Three people are under investigation in the crash Claude Frantzen, a former official at France's civil aviation authority, as well as Jacques Herubel and Henri Perrier, two former officials from Aerospatiale, the company that built the supersonic jet. Continental Airlines is also being probed.
The three officials and Continental had asked France's highest court to throw out the investigation. However, the court rejected their request Friday paving the way for a trial in a criminal court. The magistrate investigating the case still must formally close the investigation and sign an order to send them to trial.
A lawyer for Perrier and Herubel said the investigating magistrate had never clearly explained why they were targeted.
Just because you were director of a program for years doesn't mean you necessarily bear responsibility if there is an accident, said lawyer Thierry Dalmasso.
The Air France Concorde crashed shortly after takeoff from Paris' Charles de Gaulle airport on July 25, 2000, killing all 109 people on board mostly German tourists and four on the ground.
Two French investigations concluded that a titanium strip left on the runway by a Continental Airlines DC-10 was to blame for the crash.
The metal strip caused one of the Concorde's tires to burst, which sent debris flying that punctured the jet's fuel tanks. The French judicial inquiry also determined the tanks lacked sufficient protection from shock and that Concorde's makers had been aware of the weakness since 1979.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
1:16 p.m. September 22, 2006
PARIS France's highest court paved the way Friday for a trial of officials being investigated in connection with the 2000 crash of a Concorde jet that killed 113 people.
Three people are under investigation in the crash Claude Frantzen, a former official at France's civil aviation authority, as well as Jacques Herubel and Henri Perrier, two former officials from Aerospatiale, the company that built the supersonic jet. Continental Airlines is also being probed.
The three officials and Continental had asked France's highest court to throw out the investigation. However, the court rejected their request Friday paving the way for a trial in a criminal court. The magistrate investigating the case still must formally close the investigation and sign an order to send them to trial.
A lawyer for Perrier and Herubel said the investigating magistrate had never clearly explained why they were targeted.
Just because you were director of a program for years doesn't mean you necessarily bear responsibility if there is an accident, said lawyer Thierry Dalmasso.
The Air France Concorde crashed shortly after takeoff from Paris' Charles de Gaulle airport on July 25, 2000, killing all 109 people on board mostly German tourists and four on the ground.
Two French investigations concluded that a titanium strip left on the runway by a Continental Airlines DC-10 was to blame for the crash.
The metal strip caused one of the Concorde's tires to burst, which sent debris flying that punctured the jet's fuel tanks. The French judicial inquiry also determined the tanks lacked sufficient protection from shock and that Concorde's makers had been aware of the weakness since 1979.