I saw a programme today on the AF Concorde crash. The salient points were that:
– The aircraft was over 5 tons overweight due to excess baggage, an extra ton of fuel and a 4 ton disadvantage from taking off in a tailwind.
– A spacer was missing from the left main landing gear. One of the wheels wobbled as a result, which made the takeoff run longer than it might have been. A former AF Concorde captain stated that eventually, the missing spacer would have caused a crash.
– As a result of an abnormally long take off run, the famous DC-10 detritus was impacted (which shredded a tyre, which ruptured the fuel tank)
– There was an inferrence that the BEA (French accident investigators) were biaised as they were part of the same goverment department as AF (just like the allegations that the Guantanamo Bay detainees will not get a fair trial)
Anyone have any comment?
By: Hand87_5 - 28th July 2003 at 00:08
This show has not been aired in France so far . I wonder why ?? 😀
By: mongu - 27th July 2003 at 23:46
The most incriminating point is that an out-of-court settlement with the relatives of the passengers was reached.
I don’t think the investigation would have withstood the scrutiny of a Court.
By: tenthije - 27th July 2003 at 19:45
I believe I may have seen the same program at Belgian TV station Canvas (one of the public Dutch language TV stations). It was shown at “Terzake”, a Newsnight-like program.
Quite a few interesting points where raised:
* The plane was 6 tons overweight considering the wind (tailwind) and the runway length. There was too much luggage as well as fuel.
* The captain was not informed of a last minute change in luggage. Originally a lot of luggage was to go on another flight (747). In the end a few 100 kilo’s worth had to be put on the Concorde still. Therefore the captain was not aware the center of gravity was further back.
* On one of the main gear bogeys a spacer was removed for maintenance, but not placed back. This spacer has to keep the wheels fixed, otherwise they slide over the axle (like a marble on a abbacus).
* The captain took to the air to early. He had not enough speed yet, some 20mph short. The reason he (probably) did this was because he had difficulty keeping the plane on the runway. Because of the missing spacer the tires where going all over the place making it hard to make a straight run. The skid marks collaborate with this story.
* The crew where in a hurry since the flight was already delayed.
* The French investagion autorities, the BEA, made a bad report. Both the BEA and Air France are owned by the French state. Therefore the BEA did apparently not want to admit that AF made mistakes.
This program was made by Peter Bardehle for ZDF (German public TV station)
By: Comet - 27th July 2003 at 16:14
I think there are alot of cover ups about the Concorde crash. Apparently the pilot refused to fly the aircraft until repairs were carried out because he was not happy with the state it was in when taken from the hangar before the flight. Before it had left New York the previous night, the aircraft had been “repaired”, and it was “repaired” again before the fateful take off. Could these repairs have been botched? Concorde had suffered burst tyres on many occasions, but never had anything so catastrophic happened as a result, so could something else have caused the fuel leak as opposed to tyre material?
By: Ren Frew - 27th July 2003 at 16:08
It’ll probably be on History Channel again soon then.
By: steve rowell - 26th July 2003 at 06:43
Sounds like a fascinating Documentary
By: mongu - 25th July 2003 at 22:09
I don’t know. It was on History Channel +1 hour at 8pm today.
By: wysiwyg - 25th July 2003 at 22:08
Was this a program shown on uk terrestrial TV?
By: Hand87_5 - 25th July 2003 at 22:07
Interesting , do you remember who made this program?
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July 25, 2003 at 10:03 pm