Officials now say at least 113 people were killed after a chartered Air France Concorde on its way to New York crashed into a hotel and restaurant a few miles outside of Paris. Four people at the hotel were killed, and at least a dozen were injured. Police said all 100 passengers and nine crew members on board Flight AF4590 were killed, and the French Interior Ministry said four others died at the 40-room Hotelissimo.
All the passengers were German except for one American and two Danes, Air France reported. The American was a retired Air France employee. The supersonic jet slammed into a hotel after witnesses said it couldn’t gain altitude. It burst into a giant fireball. Both Air France and British Airways have grounded their Concorde fleets while the crash is being investigated.
The jetliner crashed at 4:44 p.m. in an area of farmland crisscrossed by highways and the small town of Gonesse, about nine miles northeast of Paris. It went down soon after takeoff from Charles de Gaulle airport.
After the crash, Air France agreed to temporarily ground its five remaining Concordes, and British Airways, which owns the other seven Concordes, grounded its two remaining flights for Tuesday night.
The hotel the plane crashed into was in flames, and sections had been reduced to rubble and twisted metal. Firefighters poured streams of water on the blackened wreckage, which had broken up into scattered, smoking chunks. The remains of the Concorde were barely recognizable as an airplane fuselage.
There was no immediate word on what might have caused the crash of the jet, which had been in service since 1980, had flown 12,000 hours and had just had a mechanical checkup July 21. In the more than 30 years that Concorde jets have flown, none had gone down.
The plane had been chartered by Peter Deilmann Shipping Co., a German tour group, and the passengers were on their way to New York to join a cruise ship.
Air France President Jean-Cyril Spinetta, who said he had witnessed the crash but didn’t specify from where, told reporters at the airport, “For those who were witnesses, of whom I was one, it seems that there was a fire in one or more of the engines on takeoff.”
An official at Peter Deilmann Shipping in the German city of Neustadt said most of the passengers – 97 adults and three young people under age 18 – came from various German states. They met in Paris to fly together for the cruise aboard the MS Deutschland, which is anchored at Pier 88 in New York City.
On Monday, British Airways said it had found cracks in the wings of some of its supersonic Concorde aircraft, but said there was no danger to passengers. After the crash Tuesday, the British airline canceled its two Tuesday night Concorde flights between London and New York.
“We have complete confidence in our Concorde aircraft and our engineering,” the airline said in a press release. “Nevertheless, in these circumstances – and while information is still coming in – we have taken the unprecedented step of canceling tonight’s flights.
French Transport Minister Jean-Claude Gayssot on Wednesday ordered the indefinite suspension of all Air France Concorde flights. He said he wanted more checks, with an emphasis on the recovered black boxes the flight recorders and cockpit voice recorder.
“When we know a sufficient amount about them, and when we’re in touch with our British colleagues, we will be able to consider the decision to resume,” he said. However, he said the future of the Concorde was “not in question.”
The Ministry of Transportation said the two recorders were damaged but had been found. Air France already grounded all Concorde flights Wednesday. British Airways canceled its two Tuesday night flights, but resumed Concorde service on Wednesday between New York and London after completing safety checks.
German Transport Minister Reinhard Klimmt, who along with 50 psychologists was meeting victims relatives in Paris, had said the investigation was focusing on engine failure.
THE CONCORDE EXPERIENCE
By Janusz J. Uiberall
New York – Great Britain and France started working separately towards a supersonic aircraft in 1956. They were working along such similar lines that in 1962 they decided to develop one jointly.
This partnership, between British Aircraft Corporation (now British Aerospace) and Aerospatiale, led to 20 Concordes being build. Each country manufactured one prototype, one pre-production and eight production aircraft. Development costs totalled over 1.5 billion shared jointly, with the research and development producing many break throughs – among them the medical use of laser-beam technology.
The first flight of the French prototype aircraft 001 took place from Toulouse, France on March 2, 1969. The two aircraft are now in air museums.
Five thousand hours of testing went into Concorde by the time it was certificated, making it the most tested aircraft in aviation history.
Of the 16 production Concorde, 14 were made available for sale. British Airways was the world’s first supersonic airline, having ordered five Concordes in July, 1972. Shortly afterwards, Air France ordered four. Today, British Airways and Air France each have seven Concordes. One production aircraft remains at Filton and another at Toulouse where they were made.
British Airways accepted its first Concorde reservation in 1960 and by the time of the first service, had 1500 people listed.
Many books have been written about the product, one of the most interesting was “The Concorde Story” by Christopher Orlebar, a British Airways Concorde pilot.
TIME SAVING
Concorde’s cabin is pressurised to a more comfortable level than on subsonic aircraft, reducing flight fatigue. The major fatigue saving, however, results from dramatically reduced journey times. Concorde’s ability to cruise at twice the speed of sound – faster than some rifle bullets – means it takes an average of only three hours 25 minutes to fly the 3660 miles between London and New York compared with nearly eight hours by subsonic aircraft.
As a result Concorde turns a transatlantic crossing into a pleasant medium haul journey, allowing passengers enough time for a good meal and a little reading. Travelling westwards, the five hour time difference means it arrives before it leaves, at least in local time. A 10.30 A.M. departure from London gives an arrival in New York at the start of the business day.
More important, the traveller is fresh enough to use that full day working. The 7.00 P.M. departure gives the business person the opportunity of a full day’s work in London and he or she still arrives in New York in time for dinner. Eastbound, a morning departure gets the business traveller to London in the early evening in time for dinner. A lunchtime departure allows time for a morning business meeting while still arriving home in time
for bed.
Concorde is a long, slim, streamlined aircraft with a length of 204 feet – but it stretches almost ten inches in supersonic flight due to heating of the air frame. ‘The slim delta wing is only 84 feet across, while the top of the tail soars 38 feet above the ground.
The characteristic droop nose is lowered to improve the pilots’ visibility on landing. Concorde, like 747’s and other jets, has automatic approach and landing capability.
The four engines – specially modified Rolls-Royce/Snecma Olympus 593s – give over 38,000 pounds of thrust each, with reheat. Reheat adds fuel to the final stage of the engine to produce the extra power required for take-off and the transition to supersonic flight
Cruise speed is Mach Two, 1,350 mph or twice the speed of sound. Range with full payload and fuel reserves is more than 4,000 miles.
Concorde’s cruise altitude of 55,000 to 60,000 feet is up to 20,000 feet higher than subsonic jets, and invariably above the weather.
Concorde takes off at 220 knots, compared with 165 knots, for most subsonic aircraft. Landing speeds are also higher. In other respects it performs in much the same way, for example with approach and holding patterns, diversions and runway requirements, despite the absence of flaps and wing slats
While business travellers are the primary market, a new demand for luxury leisure travel has also developed. This has helped the aircraft to attract more passengers each year, with a current rate of increase of five percent in numbers on last year.
Concorde makes headlines and attracts enormous crowds wherever it goes; the aircraft has visited more than 80 cities across the globe, mostly on charter flights. With its delta-shaped wing, slim fuselage and drooped nose, Concorde is undoubtedly the most famous airliner in today’s skies.
The development of the Anglo-French Concorde (Air France and British Airways are the only two airlines flying Concorde) is one of the most advanced technological projects undertaken in Western Europe.
CONCORDE FACT SHEET
Capacity: 100 Supersonic Class passengers and 2204 lbs / one tonne of freight.
Seating: In rows of two abreast at 37 inch / 94cm pitch.
Engines: Four Rolls-Royce / SNECMA Olympus 593, each producing 38,050 lbs /
169 KN thrust with reheat.
Take-off speed: 230 mph / 370 kph.
Cruising speed: Mach 2.0 1,350 mph / 2173 kph at 55,000 feet / 16,765 metres.
Landing speed: 190 mph / 306 kph.
Range: 4040 miles / 6502 kilometres (maximum)
Autoland capability: Category IIIa.
Length: 204 feet I inch / 62.1 metres.
Wingspan: 83 feet 9 inches / 25.5 metres.
Height: 37 feet / 11.3 metres.
Fuselage width: 9.6 feet / 2.9 metres.
Fuel capacity: 26,286 Imp. gallons / 119,482 litres/95,550 kg.
Fuel consumption: 5641 Imp. gallons per hour / 25,644 litres / 20,508 kg per hour.
Maximum take-off weight: 408,000 lbs / 185,070 kg.
Landing gear-. Eight main wheels (tire pressure 207 lbs / sq inch), two
nose wheels (tire pressure 181 lbs / sq. inch).
Flight crew: 3.
Cabin crew: 6.
Fastest crossing times: New York-London 2 hours 56 minutes / London-New York 3 hours I 1 minutes.
CONCORDE MILESTONES
1956 – Start of supersonic airline research in Europe.
1961 – Preliminary British/French discussions.
1962 – November 29 British/French Governments sign agreement for joint
design, development and manufacture of supersonic airliners.
1967 – December 11 Roll-out of first prototype@ at Toulouse.
1969 – March 2 First flight of Concorde 001 from Toulouse.
1969 – April 9 First flight of Concorde 002 from Filton.
1969 – October 1 Concorde’s first supersonic flight.
