Courtesy of
www.airdisaster.com
Continental 'outraged' at report of charges in Concorde crash.
"PARIS (AP) -- Continental Airlines Inc. said Wednesday it was "outraged" at reports that French authorities want to prosecute the airline and several employees over the Concorde crash that killed 113 people in Paris four years ago.
The airline issued a strongly worded statement after a French newspaper reported that investigating judge Christophe Regnard had summoned several Continental officials for interrogation and plans to place them under formal investigation along with the company.
"We strongly disagree that anything Continental did was the cause of the Concorde accident, and we are outraged by the media reports that criminal charges may have been made against our company and its employees," the airline said.
Continental said it had no independent confirmation of the charges reported in French daily newspaper Le Parisien, which did not cite sources.
The French justice ministry and the prosecutor's office handling the case declined to comment.
The newspaper said other companies or individuals were also likely to face prosecution over the accident on July 25, 2000, when an Air France Concorde plane crashed in flames onto a hotel shortly after taking off from Paris Charles de Gaulle airport, killing all 109 people on board and four on the ground.
An investigation by France's Accident Investigations Bureau concluded almost three years ago that the accident was caused by a badly installed titanium "wear strip" that had fallen off the engine housing of a Continental Airlines Boeing DC-10 that took off from the same runway minutes earlier.
The metal bar caused a Concorde tire to burst, the report said, propelling rubber debris into the supersonic plane's fuel tanks.
Le Parisien did not name any of the Continental employees it said would be summoned by Regnard, who is heading a manslaughter probe into the disaster.
In its statement, the airline said it was "confident that there is no basis for a criminal action" against the company. "We will defend any charges in the appropriate courts," it said.
Continental shares rose 4 cents, or 0.3 percent, to close at $12.25 Wednesday on the New York Stock Exchange -- near the middle of its 52-week trading range of $7.63 to $18.70."
Might this type of case, even of brought to court, nevermind proved or otherwise cause a precedent for any other incidents?