Quoting CNN:
The prosecution called for charges to be dropped against two other defendants, a former French civil aviation official accusing of overlooking faults on the plane, and another former Concorde engineer.
So, let's see...
We dismiss charges against the French "frontline" people who probably had a much better idea of the plane's susceptibility to FOD, and instead place suspended sentences upon A) the program's head, and B) a couple of maintenance joes on another continent.
Quoting CNN:
During their 27 years of service, the jets suffered dozens of tyre blowouts or wheel damage that in several cases pierced the fuel tanks -- a flaw that Perrier's team and the French civil aviation were accused of missing.
Knowing this, neither operator could be bothered to request a FOD check before each Concorde flight? Yeah, yeah, operations, yadda-yadda.
It's not as if there were dozens of Concorde flights taking off spaced throughout the day. Two guys in a pickup truck could have driven the runway at 45mph and would have spotted the strip. International airports are teeming with spotters, many of whom would
pay to go along on such a ride, so it's not cost.
And of course, the official report on the crash of FLT 459
excluded alternative possibilities.
It strikes me that there won't be much practical good to come out of this trial.