Five people to face Concorde crash trial

[M2dude]

It may be possible to put all of the points that have been made by myself and others here in context if you consider the following list of AF incidents during their operation of the aircraft. Gonez was, as was said by others, the final lining up of the holes in the Swiss Cheese. These events really happened, are not rumours, and are not the figment of anyones imagination.

1. The permanent structural damage caused to A/C F-BVFD, in 1977. The aircraft made TWO extremely heavy landings in succession at Dakar, This resulted in a crushing of the tailwheel assembly and heavily scraping the rear of the engines over several hundred feet. The end result was a serious distortion of the airframe, dramatically reducing the A/C’s supersonic performance. Because of very high fuel burn, this A/C was limited to only a few routes, and was permanently grounded in 1982. (A/C was broken up).
2. Massive engine damage caused by omitting a critical component (two actually) during maintenance (sound familiar?), this time on an air intake ramp actuator.. This act of forgetfulness was coupled with an illegal set of mode switch operations by the F/E that resulted in a double engine surge. The dramatic structural weakness caused by the 2 ommited components causedthe intake ramp torque tubes being separated from the actuator, the ramps were driven downwards, the fwd ramp hitting the floor of the intake and disintegrated. The large amount of debris flew into the engine. Fortunately the A/C was close enough to JFK to make an emergency landing. The intake assembly itself was also seriously damaged, and had to be returned to Filton for repair. (Oh, and the two missing components were found on a bench in the hangar in CDG).
3. Major overfueling surge of an engine at Mach 2, due to a flight engineer experimentally tripping a C/B. This bit of craziness speaks for itself.
4. Incorrect hydraulic fluid (Skydrol) added to aircraft. The mixing of the Ester based Skydrol with the mineral based Chevron M2V fluid resulted in a polymer being formed in solution. When cold this polymer was found to be fairly fluid, but became solid as the fluid heated up. As the aircraft became supersonic systems began to fail one by one as hydraulic ports and valves were clogged by the polymer. Fortunately, as the A/C decelerated, the fluid cooled and the blockages again became fluid. The A/C just managed to return to Paris, and did not fly again for nearly a year. (EVERY single hydraulic component had to be replaced).
5. Flying for over one hour with NO electronic control on one engine. (System was totally electronic control). Due to the overspeed protection system also being disabled, there was a major overspeed of the engine. RR insisted that every rotating component on this engine was quarantined.
6. Ignorance of a very basic power generation defect, defect occuring every flight for several months without rectification. This finally resulted in a fire in one of the elrctronics racks. The cabin crew fought the fire through a hole burnt in a rack panel.
7. And finally, in late 2002, another disaster narrowly avoided when the crew failed to correctly follow drills following the loss of fuel from a failed engine fuel pipe. The offending engine was shut down, but the fuel LP valve was not closed, even when the fuel continued to escape. (A/C just made Halifax after crew FORTUNATELY decided to finally follow the correct drill).

This is a series of events, not just one in isolation, perhaps now some people will see our frustration with this whole thing, concerning the errors made AGAIN leading up to this terrible tragedy.