Paris - Concorde flights by Air France remained suspended yesterday after last week's crash as investigators said they had found parts of a key section of landing-gear on the runway where the aircraft took off.
After a two-hour meeting at the transport ministry called to review progress by crash investigators, officials said not enough was yet known about the causes of the accident to permit new safety measures to be put in place for the Air France fleet.
"Uncertainties remain about the interpretation of events and in what order they happened," said Mr Gilles Ricano, cabinet director of the French Transport Minister, Mr JeanClaude Gayssot.
"It is therefore not yet possible to answer questions which we think are essential before we can make the recommendations which must precede a resumption of flights. The suspension of Concorde flights cannot in these conditions be lifted today," he said.
Emerging from the talks, the head of the Accident Investigation Bureau, Mr Paul-Louis Arslanian, confirmed a report earlier yesterday in a US newspaper that parts of a deflector from the Concorde's undercarriage had been found on the runway at Roissy-Charles de Gaulle airport.