Flight Engineer
Hi All
Just recently I watched a documentary that stated that the Flight Engineer shut the engine (on fire) down without any order to do so.
The thinking behind not shutting down an engine on fire at that critical T/O juncture that was that even an engine on fire is producing some thrust.....
Also the missing spacer on the left hand main gear meant that the Concorde veered to the left obviously and that to miss the Air France 747 waiting to cross the live runway, they rotated at a much lower speed than would have been the case normally.
Also mentioned was that under normal circumstances all Concorde flight crew only fuelled up to around 82/83% of maximum to allow for some expansion space in the tanks. The Captain on the day did recognise that he was over loaded and insisted that full (as in full) fuel was added thus leaving no spare expansion space in the tanks. (Btw I know that seems like a contradiction)
Once that piece of rubber hit the underside of the left wing, the shock wave had nowhere to go and then we see the fuel leak and subsequent fire caused by a spark from the main gear electrics.