Continental gets off

By N.B. | WASHINGTON, D.C.

LAST Thursday a French court cleared Continental Airlines (now part of United) and a mechanic of manslaughter in the 2000 crash of a Concorde operated by Air France. The drop-off in the number of passengers using Concorde after the crash provided one reason for the termination of the supersonic programme in 2003. The disaster, which killed all 109 aboard and four people on the ground, was found to have been caused by a piece of metal that had fallen off a Continental-operated DC-10 and onto the runway at Charles De Gaulle airport in Paris. The Concorde ran over the metal during take-off, causing a tyre to explode and sending pieces of rubber hurtling towards the fuel tanks, which ignited and caused the fatal crash.

Two years ago, a lower court found the airline and mechanic guilty—a decision the airline's lawyers lambasted as "absurd". The airline was ordered to pay around €2m (about $2.7m) in civil and criminal penalties. But Thursday's unexpected ruling threw out the criminal portion of that penalty, leaving Continental owing Air France around €1m in civil penalties.