Indirectly the crash happened because of its inferior design.....those canard wings behind the cockpit were an add-on precisely BECAUSE the shape of the main wing as it was didn't provide enough lift at low speed -
Tupolev Tu-144 "Concordski" Discovered Hidden in Tatarstan
And it was the canard wings a French Mirage was above the TU144 trying to get a picture of when the TU pilot suddenly saw the Mirage and got startled, hence putting it into too steep a dive.
India Four Two - have just seen your comment; take a look
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1973_Paris_Air_Show_crash
Shaggy Sheep - re your comments on copying (or not) the Concorde, see this mention of how a Soviet agent called Pavlov got sent to collect tire scrapings off the runway from a Concorde test aircraft and ended up being fed 'something like bubble gum' !
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/transcr...upersonic.html