Concorde crash trial opens

[Meck]

I bet it would still fly if that one thing never happend... 

http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/?sid=596535

[machineman9]

Cost of maintenance and all that was still quite high for Concorde even if it didn't crash.

I don't quite see why it has taken 10 years to get to this stage where the witnesses will have probably forgotten most of the key details anyway.

[beaky]

[quote]I bet it would still fly if that one thing never happend...

[OVERLORD_CHRIS]

Maybe it's just the military, but they do visual sweeps of the runway prior to certain things taking off, and this should have been one of those times that the Air field Manager went out and did a visual sweep before the Concord with it's Vacuum like intakes even got on the runway. Then the debris would have been spotted prior to the Concords take off. 

[expat]

[quote]Maybe it's just the military, but they do visual sweeps of the runway prior to certain things taking off, and this should have been one of those times that the Air field Manager went out and did a visual sweep before the Concord with it's Vacuum like intakes even got on the runway. Then the debris would have been spotted prior to the Concords take off.

[The Ruptured Duck]

[quote][quote]Maybe it's just the military, but they do visual sweeps of the runway prior to certain things taking off, and this should have been one of those times that the Air field Manager went out and did a visual sweep before the Concord with it's Vacuum like intakes even got on the runway. Then the debris would have been spotted prior to the Concords take off.

[BSW727]

You can say that again. There were so many things wrong with this flight that it should have never left the gate.

How could they have possibly approved an overweight takeoff is beyond me. Shutting down an engine 20KIAS below MCA? Does anyone know if that engine was still produciing any thrust before being shutdown?

Sounds like this was a flight waiting for a disaster to happen.

[SaultFresh]

I honestly believe that Air France is only in business because it's the flagship carrier of France. In the last decade, they have suffered 3 accidents/incidents, a feat only 5 other airlines have been able to match in that time. Along with that, Air France has managed to wipe 341 people from the Earth, which, in the last ten years, is the second most amount of casualties by a single airline, second only to American Airlines who racked up 6 accidents in that time and a fatality rate of 422 people, 156 being from September 11th, which doesn't really count as a pilot error, or bad weather, or the norm of an aviation accident, in my books.

[ViperPilot]

Sounds like the prosecutors are looking for a scapegoat. Maybe they should be asking Air France some tough questions:

1) Why were the spacers missing from the LH Landing Gear

[OVERLORD_CHRIS]

WOW, that is a lot of stuff in favor of Air France being 99% at blame.