A French prosecutor's office said today that it wants Continental Airlines and four people to stand trial for manslaughter in connection with the 2000 crash of a Concorde jet in which 113 people were killed.
The prosecutor's office in the Paris suburb of Pontoise said it sent its recommendations to a court in late February. The investigating judge who will decide whether to send the case to trial is not bound to follow the prosecutor's advice.
French investigators said a titanium strip left on the runway by a Continental Airlines DC-10 was to blame for the crash.
The prosecutor recommended that the court try Continental and two of its employees, John Taylor, who allegedly installed the defective strip, and Stanley Ford, a maintenance chief.
The prosecutor also wants two French officials to go on trial: Claude Frantzen, former head of training at the French civil aviation authority, and Henri Perrier, the former head of the Concorde programme.
The Air France Concorde crashed shortly after take-off from Paris's Charles de Gaulle Airport on July 25th, 2000, killing all 109 people on board — mostly German tourists — and four on the ground.
The metal strip from the Continental jet caused one of the Concorde's tyres to burst, which sent debris flying that punctured the jet's fuel tanks.
The French judicial inquiry also determined that the tanks lacked sufficient protection from shock — and that Concorde's makers had been aware of the weakness since 1979.