AFR Concorde crash final report
The BEA has finished its final report of the AFR CONC that crashed on 25 July 2000, and wil present it officially to French Minister of transport next week. the causes of the crash is the same one as in the previous preliminary report : metallic piece from DC10 on runway causing explosing of tyre at high speed, pieces hit the botton of wing causing shock wave and perforation from the inside to the outside of the main fuel tank, then ingition of the fuel by an electric arc within the landing gear well.
They exonerate the crew, stating that : " even with the 4 engines oerating normally, the important dammages caused by the fire will have rapidely led to the crash of the aircraft "
The leaked conclusions and recommendations ( if they remain in their present form ) will shake a bit the confortable seats of some . Nearly everyone gets mentionned : Some of the text critisise AFR management ( 80 previous incidents on CONC involving tyres ) the AFR CONC maintenance department, as well as the US carrier ( whose DC10 lost the metal piece ) sub contarcted maintenance policy , the ADP runway cleaning schedule, etc..
One of the recommendation is for civil aircraft to be equipped with video cameras to monitor the non-visble parts of the aircraft from the cockpit.
( But it mentions earlier that even if they had known what happenned they probably would not have been able to save the aircraft).
From next week the French version should be on their web site, the English version soon after.