Continental Airlines and five individuals ordered to face trial over the
2000 Concorde crash in which 113 people died.
 
GONESSE, FRANCE (FILE - JULY 25, 2000) FRENCH CIVILIAN SAFETY -
A French judge has ordered U.S. carrier Continental Airlines and
five individuals to stand trial over the crash of an Air France Concorde that
killed 113 people, a prosecutor's statement said on Thursday (July 3). 
    The judge said the defendants, including the man who oversaw the
development of the Franco-British supersonic airliner, would be charged with
involuntary manslaughter. 
    The Concorde crashed in flames minutes after take off from Paris'
Charles de Gaulle airport on July 25, 2000, killing all 109 on board and four
people on the ground. 
    Investigations concluded that the plane caught fire after one of its
tyres was punctured by a small piece of metal that had fallen off a departing
Continental flight, sending debris flying into the fuel tanks of the
delta-winged plane. 
    Prosecutors say the metal strip had been incorrectly fitted to the
Continental DC10 and was made of tough titanium metal, rather than regulation
aluminium, which is softer and less likely to cause punctures. 
    Continental has denied responsibility for the crash and has said it
would fight the charges. 
    Judges have issued an international arrest warrant for a welder named
John Taylor, who worked for Continental at the time of the disaster, after he
failed to appear for questioning. He and his supervisor, Stanley Ford, will
both now stand trial. 
    Standing alongside them in the dock will be Henri Perrier, head of
testing for Concorde before becoming director of the Concorde programme, and
Jacques Herubel, the plane's chief engineer in the 1990s. 
    The fifth defendant was a former head of France's civil aviation
authority, Claude Frantzen. 
    A judicial report on the crash said the Concorde's manufacturer
Aerospatiale, now part of plane-maker EADS, had failed to correct its design
after more than 70 incidents involving the plane's tyres occurred between 1979
and 2000. 
    Concorde's two operators, Air France and British Airways, eventually
took the plane out of service in 2003. 
    French officials said earlier this year that any trial would need
massive organisation and would probably not begin until late this year or
early 2009.