Continental Airlines found guilty of manslaughter over Concorde plane crash

Continental Airlines found guilty of manslaughter over Concorde plane crash

Continental Airlines was found guilty of manslaughter by a French court in the case of the Concorde plane crash near Paris on July 25, 2000 which killed 113 people. The ruling also ordered the U.S.-based carrier to pay $1.6 million or 1.2 million euros for damages to Air France-KLM Group. Mechanic John Taylor of Continental was penalized with a 15-month suspended sentence and a 2,000-euro fine after it was determined that he disregarded safety protocol during maintenance work.

French authorities in 2002 issued its report on the Concorde supersonic plane crash. It said that the doomed aircraft ran over a piece of metal that came off a Continental DC-10 plane which took off ahead of the Concorde. The metal stripped the wheel of the Concorde, and pieces that were ripped off lodged into the Concorde’s fuel tanks which caused the fire. Judge Dominique Andreassier ruled that there was an “incontestable link” between Continental’s “negligence” and the fire that destroyed the Concorde plane.

The crash, along with declining air travel in the wake of the September 11 attacks one year later, was too much for the business of the supersonic jet service to handle. After months of its planes being grounded, Concorde resumed operations but profits never recovered. Concorde flew its last commercial flight in 2003.

Houston-based Continental Airlines issued a statement describing its conviction as “absurd” and said that “to find that any crime was committed in this tragic accident is not supported by either by the evidence at a trial or by aviation authorities and experts.”

Posted by Sophia Andrews on Tuesday December 07 2010, 1:30 AM EST. Ref: Bloomberg. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under Featured News, Travel. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0