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Post by beth on Dec 6, 2010 14:04:38 GMT -5
Concorde crash: Continental Airlines guilty of involuntary manslaughter
Paris disaster killed 113 people; U.S. carrier must pay nearly $1.7 million in fines, compensation
PONTOISE, France — A French court found Continental Airlines and a mechanic at the airline guilty on Monday of involuntary manslaughter in connection with the 2000 Concorde crash that killed 113 people.
The accident led to the supersonic airliner being grounded for good.
The court in the Paris suburb of Pontoise ruled that the Houston-based airline must pay 1.08 million euros ($1.43 million) to Air France, which owned the Concorde jet, for moral damages and damages to its reputation.
It fined Continental euro200,000 ($265,000) and one of its mechanics, John Taylor, euro2,000 ($2,650). Taylor was also handed a 15-month suspended prison sentence.
All other defendants, including Taylor's now-retired supervisor Stanley Ford and three French aviation officials, were acquitted in the verdict.
A message left with Continental's communications department by The Associated Press was not immediately answered.
In the years it took French judicial investigators to work their way to trial, amassing 80,000 pages of court documents, the Concordes were revamped, retired and finally sent to museums.
French judicial and aviation investigators concluded long ago that a Continental Airlines DC-10 dropped titanium debris onto the runway at Charles de Gaulle airport before the Air France Concorde took off — a metal strip that gashed the supersonic jet's tire and sent rubber pieces flying into the fuel tanks, causing a fire
Continental contested that chain of events in court, calling up witnesses who testified the fire broke out before the plane reached the runway debris.
Continental lawyer Olivier Metzner had argued that the U.S. airline was merely a convenient scapegoat.
While France's aviation authority concluded the crash could not have been predicted, a judicial inquiry determined that the plane's fuel tanks lacked sufficient protection from shock and said officials had known about the problem since 1979.
'Striking and shocking'
On July 25, 2000, the Air France Concorde plunged into a hotel outside Paris soon after takeoff, killing all 109 people aboard and four on the ground. Those aboard were mostly German tourists.
The families of most victims were compensated years ago, and settling financial claims was not the main focus of the trial, which was determining who was to blame.
Before the verdict, FENVAC, a French association that represents victims of accidents that is a civil party in the case, said the court owed it to those who died to determine the truth.
During the trial, it has been "striking and shocking to see how the defendants were determined to avoid or play down any responsibility, citing probabilities, nuances of terminology, failing memory, obscure rules and other means of artifice," the group said in a statement Friday.
In France, unlike in many other countries, plane crashes routinely lead to trials to assign criminal responsibility. It is common for cases to drag on for years.
In 2009, France's highest court finally confirmed the acquittal of all those originally accused of responsibility in an Air Inter crash that killed 87 people in 1992 — 17 years earlier.
www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40527031/ns/travel/
Paris disaster killed 113 people; U.S. carrier must pay nearly $1.7 million in fines, compensation
PONTOISE, France — A French court found Continental Airlines and a mechanic at the airline guilty on Monday of involuntary manslaughter in connection with the 2000 Concorde crash that killed 113 people.
The accident led to the supersonic airliner being grounded for good.
The court in the Paris suburb of Pontoise ruled that the Houston-based airline must pay 1.08 million euros ($1.43 million) to Air France, which owned the Concorde jet, for moral damages and damages to its reputation.
It fined Continental euro200,000 ($265,000) and one of its mechanics, John Taylor, euro2,000 ($2,650). Taylor was also handed a 15-month suspended prison sentence.
All other defendants, including Taylor's now-retired supervisor Stanley Ford and three French aviation officials, were acquitted in the verdict.
A message left with Continental's communications department by The Associated Press was not immediately answered.
In the years it took French judicial investigators to work their way to trial, amassing 80,000 pages of court documents, the Concordes were revamped, retired and finally sent to museums.
French judicial and aviation investigators concluded long ago that a Continental Airlines DC-10 dropped titanium debris onto the runway at Charles de Gaulle airport before the Air France Concorde took off — a metal strip that gashed the supersonic jet's tire and sent rubber pieces flying into the fuel tanks, causing a fire
Continental contested that chain of events in court, calling up witnesses who testified the fire broke out before the plane reached the runway debris.
Continental lawyer Olivier Metzner had argued that the U.S. airline was merely a convenient scapegoat.
While France's aviation authority concluded the crash could not have been predicted, a judicial inquiry determined that the plane's fuel tanks lacked sufficient protection from shock and said officials had known about the problem since 1979.
'Striking and shocking'
On July 25, 2000, the Air France Concorde plunged into a hotel outside Paris soon after takeoff, killing all 109 people aboard and four on the ground. Those aboard were mostly German tourists.
The families of most victims were compensated years ago, and settling financial claims was not the main focus of the trial, which was determining who was to blame.
Before the verdict, FENVAC, a French association that represents victims of accidents that is a civil party in the case, said the court owed it to those who died to determine the truth.
During the trial, it has been "striking and shocking to see how the defendants were determined to avoid or play down any responsibility, citing probabilities, nuances of terminology, failing memory, obscure rules and other means of artifice," the group said in a statement Friday.
In France, unlike in many other countries, plane crashes routinely lead to trials to assign criminal responsibility. It is common for cases to drag on for years.
In 2009, France's highest court finally confirmed the acquittal of all those originally accused of responsibility in an Air Inter crash that killed 87 people in 1992 — 17 years earlier.
www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40527031/ns/travel/
