@jcj:
That excerpt has little utility as it is shorn of any context. Were precautions taken in the design of Concorde relating to fire in general? Of course they were - and I'm sure Clive would be able to quote chapter-and-verse on the subject.
The problem is and will always be that fire on an aircraft has a nasty habit of defeating even the best attempts of engineers to minimise its impact - it only takes a minor maintenance or loading error here or an unexpected area of damage there to make the situation considerably worse than envisaged, and Concorde is most certainly not alone in having fallen victim to this unfortunate circumstance.
Additionally, M. Arslanian was well within his rights to answer the way he did, as none of the previous incidents of tyre/fuel tank damage occurred in a manner to which the BEA would have been primary investigators. The lawyer's somewhat facetious response should have resulted in an objection.
Last edited by DozyWannabe; 17th Dec 2012 at 19:57.