Cause of Concorde Crash Could Take 18 Months

July 31, 2000 -- Concorde crash investigators said it could take more than 18 months to determine what caused the Concorde to crash minutes after takeoff.

“We are at the beginning of a difficult investigation,” saidAlain Monnier, head of a special inquiry commission investigating the crash that killed 113 people.

Air France’s five remaining supersonic airliners were grounded immediately after Tuesday’s crash just north of Paris, which killed all 109 aboard the plane and four people on the ground.

But with the world’s only other Concorde operator, British Airways, resuming its flights within 24 hours of the accident, the pressure is on the French state-controlled airline to follow suit.

In a meeting in Paris today, British and Frenchaviation officials examined how to improve safety in hopes ofgetting France’s grounded Concorde fleet airborne again followingthe July 25 crash.

Representatives of the French civil aviation authority, the General Direction for Civil Aviation, as well as officials from the British and French engine manufacturers Rolls-Royce and Air France attended the meeting, which will continue Tuesday.

A Time Bomb Today’s meeting came as a leading German aviation expert called the Concorde a “flying time bomb.”

Speaking from Berlin, Elmar Giemulla compared taking off in one of the aging supersonic jets to a game of roulette and said the jet should be taken out of service.

Giemulla, an expert in aviation law, said serious problems involving a Concorde — including incidents that require the jet to return to the airport — occur about once a month.

On Sunday, the French Accident Investigation Bureau (BEA) said a ruptured fuel tank is responsible for the flames which spewed from the Concorde as it sped down the runway to its doom.

Investigators have confirmed that a piece of a fuel tank was found amid the debris on the runway the plane used to take off. French officials believe that fuel tanks might have been torn open by debris from a burst wheel, with the subsequent fire knocking out one engine and crippling another.

Earlier, investigators said one, and possibly two, of the four tires on the left side of the jet had come apart on the runway at Charles de Gaulle airport. Investigators have not said whether the fuel tank fire was caused by a burst tire.

Looking at the Tracks

Air France has acknowledged that the Concorde has a history of problems with tires blowing on takeoff. Some of the past incidents have resulted in serious damage to the aircraft, forced landings, and safety warnings from both European and U.S. regulatory agencies.

Tires have even previously punctured the wing fuel tanks, although no fires ensued.But a spokesman said the airline has routinely checked its Concordes’ tires before every flight for the past 20 years, including last Tuesday.

Both Air France and British Airways have also implemented a series of design and maintenance modifications to address the problem, including a system to warn pilots if the tire pressure is imbalanced or a tire has blown, a decision to stop using retreaded tires, and additional tire inspections.

“Seeing that tire damage is such a common incident, it’s a miracle that nothing has happened before.” Giemulla said. “It can happen again any time. Continuing to fly would be roulette.”

BEA investigators said it could take at least a year and a half to findout what caused the crash.

Controversy Over Return to Service

Magistrates say a formal judicial inquiry into the crash is not expected to release its preliminary findings before the end of August.

Some Air France unions are hoping the company’s flagship aircraft will be back in the sky well before then.

“When a Boeing 747 or an Airbus A320 crashes all the 747s or A320s in the world are not grounded. Why should Concorde be,” asked Gilles Belliard, spokesman for the aviation mechanics’ trade union SNMSAC.

Bernard Pedamon, a spokesman for the main pilots’ union, the SNPL, and himself an Airbus pilot, said he thought it would be relatively easy for Air France to reinforce Concorde fuel tank cases to prevent similar ruptures.

However, if investigators concluded that the engines had contributed to the disaster, then it would take much longer to correct the problem, he added.

Giemulla said he expected neither British Airways nor Air France, the two airlines that operate the jets, to permanently ground the Concorde voluntarily.

“It is a prestige project for both,” he said. “That would mean admitting failure — and they won’t do that.”

Giemulla predicted that the United States would withdraw permission for the Concorde to land. “And that will be the end of it,” he said.

His concerns reflect a growing anger within Germany, which lost 96 of its citizens to the crash. At memorial services, bishops and priests say British Airways allowed its Concordes to return to service too quickly after the incident, instead of waiting for the results of an investigation.

Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer, a member of the Green Party, has also been unsparing in his criticism of British Airways’ decision to fly again so soon. Fischer has been standing in for Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, who is on vacation but has attended memorial services.

Lawyers in Germany, which does not have a tradition of major damages claims, have been urging the victims’ relatives to sue Air France on behalf of the 96 German victims, who had been heading to New York for a vacation.

Aftermath of the Crash

British Airways has insisted that its Concordes are safe, but Sunday it suffered two embarrassing problems with the distinctive, needle-nosed aircraft.

A Concorde flying from London to New York had to divert to Newfoundland after the crew smelled fuel in the cabin, while a second plane was grounded in London due to a refueling fault.

In France, police today confirmed that the death toll from the Gonesse crash was 113, as originally thought, and not 114, as reported by the Ministry of Transport on Friday.

An official said there had been a mix up registering the dead.

The cruise ship MS Deutschland, which was to have carried some of those traveling aboard the Concorde for a vacation, sailed on schedule from New York late Thursday.

The atmosphere on board among the 410 remaining passengers, mostly German, is reported to be “extremely somber.”

ABCNEWS.com’s Lucrezia Cuen in Gonesse, France, ABCNEWS’s Antonio Mora and Lisa Stark in Gonesse, Nathan Thomas in London, Sue Masterman in Vienna, Merlin Koene in Hamburg, David Ruppe, Rose Palazzolo, Julia Campbell and The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report