Flight Safety Information December 6, 2010 - No. 249 In This Issue French court blames US airline and mechanic for Paris Concorde crash Jet, Cargo Plane Clip Each Other at O'Hare Jet slips off runway at Minn.-St. Paul airport Pilot Error May Cause Russian Plane's Emergency Landing French court blames US airline and mechanic for Paris Concorde crash Continental Airlines and John Taylor found guilty after safety failures on DC10 aircraft left debris on runway before Concorde crashed outside French capital A French court has blamed a US airline and one of its mechanics for the crash of a Concorde airliner outside Paris in which 113 people died. Photograph: Toshihiko Sato/AP A French court today blamed a US airline and one of its mechanics for the crash of a Concorde airliner outside Paris in which 113 people died 10 years ago. Continental Airlines and John Taylor were found guilty of involuntary manslaughter for safety failures on a DC10 aircraft that left debris on the runway before the supersonic Air France airliner took off in flames from Charles de Gaulle airport. It crashed minutes later, and the disaster signalled the end of the first era of commercial supersonic flight. Continental, now named United Continental Holdings following a merger, was ordered to pay Air France €1m (£846,946), and Taylor was fined €2,000. Taylor was also given a 15-month suspended prison sentence. His supervisor and two European officials were acquitted, but after a four-month hearing earlier this year the court at Pontoise, north-west of Paris, ruled that the European aerospace group EADS bore some civil liability for the crash and must pay 30% of any damages to victims' families. Investigators had said a titanium metal strip gashed the tyre of the Air France Concorde, propelling bits of rubber into the fuel tanks and sparking the fire. Most of the victims were German tourists, and four people on the ground were also killed. Lawyers for Continental had suggested the Concorde was on fire before it hit the metal strip and said the airline was not to blame. French officials had also faced charges for allegedly failing to fix weak spots on the Concorde after an inquiry by the country's aviation authority concluded that, while the crash could not have been predicted, the plane's fuel tanks were not sufficiently protected - a flaw that had been known about since 1979. Their lawyers said they were not to blame. Most families of those who died have been compensated but Fenvac, a French association that represents victims of accidents and was a civil party in the case, said before the verdict that it had been "striking and shocking to see how the defendants were determined to avoid or play down any responsibility, citing probabilities, nuances of terminology, failing memory, obscure rules and other means of artifice". A prosecutor had asked the court to fine Continental €175,000 and sought 18-month suspended prison sentences for Taylor and his now-retired supervisor, Stanley Ford. The prosecution also requested a two-year suspended sentence for Henri Perrier, the former head of the Concorde programme at the plane maker Aérospatiale, and the acquittal of a French engineer, Jacques Herubel, and Claude Frantzen, the former chief of France's civil aviation authority. Kenneth Quinn, an aviation lawyer and previously the chief counsel for the US Federal Aviation Authority, speaking before the verdict, said: "Criminal trials are the wrong response to accidents, because they are counterproductive when it comes to advancing safety and preventing accidents in the first place. "The risk of facing a prosecutor some day chills voluntary disclosures and cooperation - it keeps people from coming forward to find, flag and fix safety issues, which hurts everyone." Quinn, a partner at Washington-based lawyers Pillsbury: "Regardless of the trial's outcome, the fact it is merely taking place already takes us down a slippery slope to more 'criminalised' crash probes worldwide. "Safety experts and regulators should lead investigations - not prosecutors - or else governments risk rolling back decades of progress by stifling safety cultures encouraging aviation professionals to come forward before it's too late." http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/dec/06/concorde-crash-paris-airline-mechanic Back to Top Jet, Cargo Plane Clip Each Other at O'Hare (AP) Two planes clipped each other on the O'Hare tarmac Saturday night, but no one was hurt. It happened when a United Airlines Express jet was pulling into the gate around 9:15 p.m. An Atlas cargo plane's wing clipped the tail of the passenger jet. A United Airlines spokesman said the impact was so slight, the 27 passengers and crew onboard didn't realize what happened. All got off the plane safely. Officials are investigating, but are not sure if the snow played a part in the accident. Mesa is partnered with United. Back to Top Jet slips off runway at Minn.-St. Paul airport MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - A Delta Air Lines jet slipped off the runway at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport as a snowstorm moves across the Twin Cities. Metropolitan Airports Commission spokeswoman Melissa Scovronski says the plane had landed and was taxiing to the gate when its right main wheel slid into a grassy area about 7:20 p.m. Friday. No one was hurt. The plane from Atlanta was carrying 189 passengers. Scovronski says airport crews laid down sand and dug out the jet's wheel. It taxied to the gate about 8:30 p.m. Then shortly after 9 p.m., a deicing truck clipped the wing of a Mesaba flight that was on a deicing pad awaiting departure to Knoxville, Tenn. Scovronski says that plane also made its way back to the gate and its 22 passengers deplaned. Back to Top Pilot Error May Cause Russian Plane's Emergency Landing The pilots who steered the Tu-154 that crash-landed at a Moscow airport on Saturday may be responsible for the emergency landing, the Moscow Times reported Monday. The plane belonging to Dagestan Airlines, or currently known as South East Airlines, which was en route from Moscow to Dagestani capital Makhachkala, was forced to make the emergency landing due to engine failure shortly after it took off from the Moscow Vnukovo airport. The landing killed two people and injured over 80 others out of more than 160 people aboard. The plane was also broken into three pieces as a result. Investigators said the pilots reported the failure of all three engines about 15 minutes after the plane took off at 02:00 p.m. Moscow time (1100 GMT). The pilots then decided to make an emergency landing at another Moscow airport Domodedovo despite poor visibility and a possible risk of explosion because the plane was full with fuel. Investigators were now checking the actions of the pilots, but had no solid proof for causes of the engine failure. Some media reports said the pilots might forget to turn off the jet's fuel booster pumps after takeoff, thus making the engines to shut down. Other theories included poor-quality fuel and technical malfunction. "The investigation is considering all possible versions, but none of them has been granted priority," said a statement from Russia's Investigative Committee Sunday. The two passengers killed in the crash were Gadzhimurad Magomedov, 49, a businessman and brother of Dagestani leader Magomedsalam Magomedov, and Roza Gadzhiyeva, 80, mother of Constitutional Court judge Gadis Gadzhiyev, investigators said. Earlier media reports said a total of three people were killed in the crash. Some 41 passengers had returned to Makhachkala Sunday, and 36 remained hospitalized, three of whom in critical condition. This has been the third incident involving a Tu-154 aircraft this year. http://english.cri.cn/6966/2010/12/06/2321s608740.htm Curt Lewis, P.E., CSP CURT LEWIS & ASSOCIATES, LLC