Continental Airlines have been ordered to pay by a Paris court 200,000 euros and was deemed criminally responsible for the 2000 crash of the Concorde. In July 2000 the Concorde caught fire shortly after take off from Charles do Gaulle airport in Paris killing 113 people .
The cause of the crash, a judge in the case confirmed, was a piece of titanium metal left on the runway falling from a Continental jet causing a tire to burst on the Concorde which ruptured a fuel tank, investigators said.
This interpretation was disputed by Continental saying the Concorde, operated by Air France was already on fire before it hit the small fragment of titanium. John Taylor, a Continental mechanic was given a 15 month suspended prison sentence over the crash. Blaming one of Continentals employees as the sole guilty parties and a metal strip as the cause of the accident shown the determination of the French authorities to transfer the blame away from Air France which the government owned at that time and operated plus maintained the aircraft and was responsible for the Concorde’s airworthiness and safety.
The families of the victim’s were looking for some closure in this case. The court ruled that Continental should pay 70% of any compensation claims to the families of victims and Aerospace group EADS was asked to pay the remaining 30%.
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