Originally Posted by
wilyflier
Isnt it likely that the witness statements of "fire before point of tyreburst" ( particularly one of "fire on the right wing") actually referred to their sighting of the normal afterburner lightup during takeoff ?
I read the original report again a couple of days ago, and yes, I think you're right. The word 'allumage' does not usually mean 'catching fire', but 'being lit', or 'lighting up', being the common term for when the afterburners light up.
What doesn't help, of course, that we only have a brief summary of each statement, not the full text, and that several statements were added or amended in 2003, three
years after the accident.
Between recall of a three-year old event, summary and translation, it's easy for the original meaning to get lost.
CJ