Concord Crash into Paris Hotel while taking off
 

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum6/HTML/000086.html

Only watching the TV news. An eye witness reports one left engine on fire blows the second next to it, plane can't climb (concords are supersonic marvels but poor sub-sonic planes), stalled, backed into ground, 109 died.
More to follow.

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Latest news: 113 people died, among them 100 from Germany going to NYC to board on a cruise ship. It seems that the pilot tried to avoid a crash on an urban area and made a turn on the left, then reversed the plane and fell vertically in a field. When taking off, Concorde already had an engine on fire, as reported by witnesses interviewed by French radios.
Among the victims, 4 people who where in a hotel near the crash.

Reports now from Reuters of perhaps one survivor.
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum...ML/000943.html

Has anyone flown the Concorde?

flew it once on BA London-Dulles-Miami way back in 1985.

Lance,
Could you email me at [email protected] if you would be interested in speaking to a reporter? Thanks

Have flown Concorde several times--both AF and BA--the speed is remarkable--but a very uncomfortable plane--very narrow--and with the price being astronomical it hardly makes sense unless time really is a primary concern.

There was one reported survivor. There is quite a bit of info at yahoo, including a BBC video. A FedEx pilot witnessed the incident from a nearby hotel.

According to an eyewitness the engine(s) were on fire before the takeoff roll. He stated that pieces fell off on the runway before it started it's roll. http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/2000...ness_dc_2.html


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Cheers Scott

One news story says that the President of Air France was an eye witness to the crash.

The link provided has a photo of the fated aircraft with the engine flaming prior to the crash.

My deepest sympathies to the passengers, crew and people on the ground that perished in this unfortunate catastrophy.

"Concorde crashes outside Paris
At least 113 people killed
By ANGELA DOLAND-- The Associated Press

PARIS (AP) -- An Air France Concorde en route to New
York crashed outside Paris shortly after takeoff Tuesday, slamming into a hotel and
a restaurant. At least 113 people were killed when the charter flight of mostly
German tourists went down in the first-ever crash of the needle-nosed supersonic
jet.

Police said all 100 passengers and nine crew members on board Flight AF4590 were
killed, and the Interior Ministry said four others died at the 40-room Hotelissimo. "

http://www.canoe.ca/CNEWSTopNews/concorde_jul25.html

Very sad occurrence. Feel terrible for the poor families.

I remember that when citing impediments to building larger planes an official at either Airbus or Boeing siad that a crash involving the death of 600 people would be too much for the public to handle.

My deepest condolence to the families of the deceased.

[This message has been edited by silver (edited 07-25-2000).]

Yes it is truly sad to hear this news. I heard that it cost like $10k for a roundtrip from NY-London. Will people stop flying this plane? probably I will never fly this thing in my lifetime.

The following is a list of the 14 Concordes that went in commercial service:

Concorde Utilisation Details for British Airways and Air France

BA figures at the end of February 1998
Aircraft registration / Aircraft number / Hours flown / Supersonic cycles / Landings
GBOAA / 206 / 20,876 / 6,275 / 7,432
GBOAB / 208 / 20,297 / 6,056 / 7,161
GBOAC / 204 / 19,792 / 5,985 / 6,954
GBOAD / 210 / 20,527 / 6,161 / 7,384
GBOAE / 212 / 20,617 / 6,163 / 7,458
GBOAF / 216 / 15,340 / 4,773 / 5,029
GBOAG / 214 / 13,265 / 4,151 / 4,659

Air France figures at the end of February 1998
Aircraft registration / Aircraft number / Hours flown / Supersonic cycles / Landings
FBVFA / 205 / 15,922 / 4,823 / 6,257
FBVFB / 207 / 12,413 / 3,784 / 4,474
FBVFC / 209 / 12,249 / 3,700 / 4,171
FBVFD* / 211 / 5,814 / 1,807 / 1,929
FBVFF / 215 / 10,997 / 3,300 / 3,775 <=
FBTSC / 203 / 11,399 / 3,465 / 4,688
FBTSD / 213 / 11,425 / 3,434 / 4,448
* 'FD' was taken out of service in 1982 and dismantled in 1994.

Source: "The Concorde Story" by Christopher Orlebar, 1998, Osprey Publishing, ISBN 185532 6671

According to Air France the aircraft involved in the accident first went in service in 1980. I would assume it was aircraft number 215, or FF, which was delivered to Air France on October 23, 1980 (same data source). 215 was the second to last Concorde built, it made it's first flight on December 26, 1979. The last production Concorde was 216, it made it's first flight on April 20, 1979 and was delivered to British Airways on June 13. Concorde 215 was the last aircraft to join the collective BA/AF Concorde fleet.

As you can see from the table above, Concorde 215 had the least flight hours and number of landings accumulated among the 13 aircrafts in service. In fact, it was half as "young" compared to some of the BA Concordes in terms of degree of utilization. Concorde 215 was the youngest of all Concordes.