The US airline Continental is set to be put on trial in France following the crash of an Air France Concorde jet 10 years ago.
According to the BBC, a wing and one engine caught fire as the Concorde jet was taking off from Paris Charles De Gaulle airport. The flight crashed down in to a hotel and all 109 individuals on board were killed, as well as four people in the hotel.
The trial is set to investigate whether or not a metal strip that allegedly fell earlier from one of Continental’s planes. Following the accident, the entire fleet of Concordes was grounded and an enquiry discovered that one of the plane’s tyres had burst and debris flew up and ruptured the jet’s fuel tank, resulting in a fuel leak which ignited, causing the accident.
However, a further investigation in 2004 found that a piece of metal left on the runway caused the tyre to burst and the metal strip was found to have fallen from the engine casing of a Continental Airlines DC-10 aircraft which had taken off a short time before.
Continental denies responsibility for the accident, believing that the Concorde was unfit to fly in any case. Only some families of those who died in the accident will be represented at the trial as many took compensation from Air France following the accident.
It can sometimes be difficult to establish who is the party responsible for an accident; indeed sometimes it may be found that more than one party was a contributor to an accident through their negligence. In the UK, where the court is unable to establish which of the parties is at fault and there is a party who has suffered injury, the court might make an order that damages payments are split between the parties who are deemed to have contributed to the victims injuries.
In this case it appears to be unclear whether the metal strip caused the accident or whether it was the plane itself which was unfit. Hopefully, the trial will conclude soon and the families who have lost someone in the accident will be able to get some closure on the incident.
