LONDON 24 October 2008 Concorde final landing five years ago. Crash trial soon

Three British Airways Concorde airliners landed at Heathrow Airport on 24 Oct 2003, bringing to a close almost three decades of supersonic air travel. The only other carrier to operate the white needle-nosed supersonic aircraft, Air France, retired its Concordes in May 2003. The crash of a French Concorde on 25 Jul 2000 near Paris, in which 113 people died, began the countdown to the retirement. News that the company and individuals blamed for the crash will be tried has returned Concorde to the headlines.

Concorde had a grandstand finish at Heathrow. The final flights, carrying celebrities, landed within five minutes of each other, watched by thousands of onlookers. The event signaled the end to one of commercial aviation's most exciting -- and expensive -- experiments.

France's Bureau Enquetes-Accidents (BEA) conducted an investigation after the accident, blaming United States carrier Continental Airlines for illegally installing a metal piece blamed for the crash to the DC10 engine exhaust. Officials said this had been done in violation of the manufacturer's rules and remained the only weak link in the whole chain of events. The French prosecutor has filed manslaughter charges against the company and five individuals. The trial will be held in 2009, BEA said, and could last two to three months.

In 1956 Britain and France began working separately on an aircraft that would fly at twice the speed of sound. On 29 Nov 1962 the two countries signed a treaty to share costs and risks in producing a supersonic transport. Developed by Aérospatiale and British Aerospace, the result, the Concorde, has been lauded for its technical innovation, but condemned for being too expensive to manufacture as well as too noisy and uneconomic to run.

It was launched in 1969 at the height of a fuel crisis. A combination of its heavy fuel consumption and small tanks made it uneconomic for the owners of Concorde fleets -- British Airways and Air France. For reasons of national prestige, Britain and France wrote off the costs and continued flying the planes. After the crash in 2000, £17m was spent on safety improvements and the aircraft went back into commercial service in Nov 2001. In Apr 2003 the two airlines announced the plane would be retired due to falling passenger revenue and rising maintenance costs. Aug/08

RELATED READING:
Concorde background (Encyclopedia Britannica)
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/131246/Concorde

Five to face Concorde trial (BBC 3 Jul 2008)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7488891.stm