Air France Flight 4590 was a Concorde flight from Charles de Gaulle International Airport near Paris, France, to John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City, New York, and operated by Air France. On 25 July 2000 it crashed in Gonesse, France. All one hundred passengers and nine crew on board the flight, and four people on the ground, were killed.
The flight was chartered by German company Peter Deilmann Cruises and all passengers were on their way to board the MS Deutschland cruise ship in New York City for a 16-day cruise to South America.
Flight
American passenger airplane McDonnell Douglas DC-10 (flight of Continental Airlines) lost a titanium part during a takeoff. During the Concorde's take-off run from Charles de Gaulle Airport, this piece of debris on the runway ruptured a tyre which subsequently burst. The debris was about three centimetres wide and 43 centimetres long. A large chunk of tyre (4.5 kg) struck the underside of the aircraft's wing structure at well over 300 km/h rupturing fuel tank number five above the landing gear. Leaking fuel was ignited by an electric arc in the landing gear bay or through contact with severed electrical cables. At the point of ignition, engines one and two both surged and lost all power, but slowly recovered over the next few seconds. A large plume of flame developed; the Flight Engineer then shut down engine two, in response to a fire warning and the Captain's command.
Having passed V 1 speed, the crew continued the take-off but they could not gain enough airspeed on the three remaining engines, because the undercarriage could not be retracted. The aircraft was unable to climb or accelerate, and it maintained a speed of 200 knots (370 km/h) at an altitude of 200 feet (60 m). The fire caused damage to the port wing. Engine one surged again but this time failed to recover. Due to the asymmetric thrust, the starboard wing lifted, banking the aircraft to over 100 degrees. The crew reduced the power on engines three and four to attempt to level the aircraft but with falling airspeed they lost control, crashing into the Hôtelissimo Les Relais Bleus Hotel near the airport.
The crew was trying to divert to nearby Le Bourget Airport; accident investigators say that a safe landing with the flight path the aircraft was on would have been highly unlikely.
As the CVR transcript recorded it, the last intelligible words of the crew were (translated into English):
Nationalities of passengers and crew fatalities
Concorde grounded
The Concorde had been the safest working passenger airliner in the world according to passenger deaths per distance travelled. The crash of a Concorde was the beginning of the end of the aircraft's career.
A few days after the crash, all Concordes were grounded, pending an investigation into the cause of the crash and possible remedies. Air France Concorde F-BVFC was allowed to return home from its stranded position in New York, empty of passengers.
Accident investigation
The official investigation was conducted by France’s accident investigation bureau, the BEA, and it was published on 14 December 2004. It concluded that the crash was caused by a titanium strip, part of a thrust reverser, that fell from a Continental Airlines DC-10 (Continential Flight 55) that had taken off about four minutes earlier to Houston. This metal fragment punctured the Concorde's tyres, which then disintegrated. A piece of rubber hit the fuel tank and broke an electrical cable. The impact caused a shockwave that fractured the fuel tank some distance from the point of impact. This caused a major fuel leak from the tank, which then ignited. The crew shut down engine number two in response to a fire warning but were unable to retract the landing gear, which hampered the aircraft's ability to climb. With engine number one surging and producing little power, the aircraft was unable to gain height or speed, entering a rapid pitch-up then a violent descent, rolling left. The impact occurred with the stricken aircraft tail-low, crashing into the Hotelissimo Hotel in Gonesse. According to the report, the piece of titanium from the DC-10 had not been approved by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration.
Conclusions
The investigators concluded that:
- The aircraft was airworthy and the crew was qualified. The landing gear that later failed to retract did not show serious problems in the past. Despite the crew being trained and certified, no plan existed for the simultaneous failure of two engines on the runway, as it was considered highly unlikely.
- The aircraft was slightly overloaded, being about a ton too heavy.
- After reaching take-off speed, the tyre of the number 2 wheel was cut by a metal strip lying on the runway, which came from the thrust reverser cowl door of the number 3 engine of a Continental Airlines DC-10 that had taken off from the runway several minutes before. This strip was installed in violation of the manufacturer's rules.
- Aborting the take-off would have led to a high-speed runway excursion and collapse of the landing gear, which also would have caused the aircraft to crash.
- While two of the engines had problems and one of them was shut down, the damage to the plane's structure was so severe that the crash would have been inevitable, even with the engines operating normally.
Previous tyre incidents
In November, 1981, the American NTSB sent a letter of concern, which included safety recommendations for the Concorde, to the French BEA. That communiqué was the result of the NTSB's investigations of four Air France Concorde incidents, during a 20 month period, from July 1979, through February, 1981. The NTSB described those incidents as “potentially catastrophic,” because they were caused by blown tyres during takeoff. The NTSB also expressed concern about the lack of adequate remedies, on the part of the French, as well as improper crew responses to those incidents.
- June 13, 1979: The number 5 and 6 tyres blew out during a takeoff from Washington, DC Dulles Airport. Shrapnel thrown from the tyres and rims damaged number 2 engine, punctured three fuel tanks, severed several hydraulic lines and electrical wires, in addition to tearing a large hole on the top of the wing, over the wheel well area.
- July 21, 1979: Another blown tyre incident, during takeoff from Dulles Airport. After that second incident the “French director general of civil aviation issued an air worthiness directive and Air France issued a Technical Information Update, each calling for revised procedures. These included required inspection of each wheel/tyre for condition, pressure and temperature prior to each takeoff. In addition, crews were advised that landing gear should not be raised when a wheel/tyre problem is suspected.”
- October, 1979: Tyres number 7 and 8 failed during a takeoff from New York's JFK Airport. In spite of the well-publicized danger from the previous incidents, the crew ignored the new safety recommendations and raised the landing gear and continued on to Paris. There was no subsequent investigation by the French BEA or the NTSB, of that incident.
- February, 1981: While enroute from Mexico City to Paris, Air France (F-BTSD) blew more tyres during another takeoff at Dulles Airport. Once again, the crew disregarded the new procedures by raising the landing gear. The blown tyres caused engine damage, which forced the flight to land at New York JFK Airport. The NTSB's investigation found that there had been no preparation of the passengers for a possible emergency landing and evacuation. The CVR was also found to have been inoperative for several flights, including one which followed a layover in Paris.
To save on weight, the Concorde was designed to takeoff without the assistance of flaps or slats. That required a significantly higher air and tyre speed, during the takeoff roll, which imposed a much greater centrifugal force load on the tyres. That higher speed increased the risk of tyre explosion during takeoff. When the tyres did explode, much greater kinetic energy was carried by the resulting shrapnel (the kinetic energy of an object is directly proportional to the square of its speed), increasing the risk of serious damage to the aircraft. A thicker skin on the bottom side of the wings, could have prevented serious damage from an exploding tyre, but that would have added too much additional weight, canceling out most of the weight-saving advantage of not having flaps/slats.
Alternative theories
British investigators and former French Concorde pilots looked at several other possibilities that the report ignored, including an unbalanced weight distribution in the fuel tanks and loose landing gear. They came to the conclusion that the Concorde veered off course on the runway, which reduced take-off speed below the crucial minimum. The aircraft had passed close to a Boeing 747 known to be carrying French President Jacques Chirac who was returning from the 26th G8 summit meeting in Okinawa, Japan.
They argued that the Concorde was in trouble before takeoff, as it was overweight for the given conditions, with an excessively aft
Paris Hotels: Compare Prices for Hotels in Paris, France with Paris ...
Flight + Hotel; Package Holidays; Activities; Corporate ... Let Expedia take you to the best Hotels in Paris. You'll find the largest selection of hotel deals ...
Holiday Inn Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport Hotel Paris Hotels
Book your Paris hotel and flights in one convenient purchase. Click Here ... Holiday Inn Paris Hotel Charles De Gaulle Airport features 243 standard guestrooms ...
Mercure Paris Opera Garnier (Paris, France) - Hotel Reviews ...
Mercure Paris Opera Garnier Hotel. Home; Hotels; Flights; Restaurants; Trip Ideas ... Traveling with friends for weekend in Paris....this hotel was convenient and ...
Paris France Hotel (Paris, France) - Hotel Reviews - TripAdvisor
Paris France Hotel; Vacation Rentals Flights to Paris Paris Deals More On Paris Travel Guide Things to Do Restaurants Map Photos Videos Travel Forum
Cheap flights from Gatwick to Paris (France)
Gatwick to Paris flights. Search and compare cheap flights from Gatwick (LGW) to Paris (France) to find the latest deals from ... Hotel only
Paris late deals or hotel + flight package
PARIS BREAKS - Eurostar, car hire, flights + hotel plus late package deals
Cheap flights from Newcastle to Paris (France)
Newcastle to Paris flights. Search and compare cheap flights from Newcastle (United Kingdom) to Paris (France) to find the latest ... Hotel only
Paris! Flight, Hotel, Tourist Information, Map of Paris...
Paris: Find a flight, hotel, tourist information. View Paris Airport, a map of Paris and more!
Expedia.com - the best place to find travel deals and discounts on ...
Paris hotels and vacations: Try Expedia travel, your source for discount airfare ... hotel+flight
Cheap flights to Paris with Opodo
Flight + Hotel ... If the idea of finding cheap flights to Paris appeals, simply use the search box on the ...