Originally Posted by
Chronus
The action that caused the crash was the engine shut down. Had this action not been taken, whether it would still have crashed has not and never will be resolved. In that respect the speculation lies on whether the decision would have remained to make for Le Bourget and made a successful landing there.
But engine 1 surged and flamed out due to ingestion of hot gasses from the fire shortly after engine 2 was shut down......I'd say it was certain that engine 2 would have flamed out along with engine 1 if it had still been running.
In the circumstances, and in hindsight (the crew could never have known this at the time) their best chance was an RTO. Once they got in the air, with engine 2 shut down as soon as their speed dropped below 205kts (gear down 3 engine Vzrc) they were going down whatever.........their only chance would have been a forced landing in whatever clear area they could see straight ahead. I don't think either option would have ended well.
atakacs I agree the titanium strip was very convenient for the investigation. Personally I think the BEA report was a bit of a whitewash. It should have investigated the effect of the missing spacer much more thoroughly. It also should have investigated human factors and the culture within the Air France Concorde operation that allowed the aircraft to depart overweight.