PARIS (AP) - French investigators said Monday a stray metal piece that gashed a tire of a supersonic Concorde in July - causing a fire in the fuel tank and dooming the flight - apparently came from a Continental Airlines plane.

The Continental DC-10 took off from the same runway minutes before the Concorde, which caught fire and crashed into a hotel, killing 113 people, said France's Accident and Inquiry Office.

A Continental DC-10 had a missing part ``which appeared to be identical to the metal piece found on the runway after the July 25, 2000, accident,'' said a statement from the office, known by the French acronym, BEA.

The BEA's preliminary report on the accident, made public Thursday, showed a picture of a bent metal piece 16 inches long.

The statement Monday said a BEA official in Washington noted the absence of the Continental part to the National Transportation Safety Board and other officials.

The part was found to be missing from a space between a fan and a door on the right-wing engine of a Continental DC-10, it was learned earlier in Houston, where Continental is based. http://my.aol.com/news/story.tmpl?ta...09040102030344