Sir, this event was about insufficient, decreasing airspeed at 200 feet AGL...a scenario which required an immediate descent and landing to preclude imminent stall and uncontrolled crash. Captain Marty still had sufficient pitch and roll authority 1 minute after rotation to effect a controlled crash landing straight ahead unto one of several farmers' fields between CDG and LBG.
Farmers field, in a burning, delta wing jet with u/c extended?
I'm not an airline pilot, but I suspect I'm rather more current on forced landings into farmers fields than many ATPLs - and I don't underestimate the risks involved in an aircraft that weights only 1.5 tonnes and approaches at only 90kts. I would certainly prefer a gear up configuration into a rough field or even into a field where standing crop made assessment of the surface impossible (this was mid summer.)
In a Concorde, this course of action sounds like committing suicide to me, rather than trying to avoid the inevitable, until the inevitable happened, which I would have thought would be the professional pilots response.
The deceleration forces as the u/c hit rough ground would be pretty extreme and given that the aircraft was well ablaze, the subsequent and inevitable rending open of the wings and spilling of the fuel would have caused conflagration, well away from the assistance of the AFS at Le Bourget.
I'm sure that Cpt Marty was well aware of the options and made the best call that he could under the circumstances. RIP.