Burst tyre behind Concorde crash-report
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PARIS (Reuters) - French investigators have issued a summary of their final report into the causes of the July 2000 Concorde air disaster, reaffirming their previous conclusions that the crash was triggered by a burst tyre.
But Air France on Wednesday denied a newspaper report that it had been singled out for fresh criticism in a fuller version of the report on the crash which killed 113 people.
French newspaper Liberation reported that the full text of the findings by the BEA aviation security body also noted various failings by Concorde operator Air France, while stressing these were not related to the crash.
The BEA was not immediately available for comment.
An Air France spokesman said there was nothing new in the final version of the report, but that authorities had made various recommendations which had mostly been implemented.
Concorde, the world's fastest passenger jet, re-entered service last November after its suspension following the crash shortly after take-off from Charles de Gaulle airport.
In a summary statement, the BEA confirmed its conclusions from an interim report that the front tyre of the aircraft ran over a strip of metal left on the runway.
The debris was thrown against the wing structure leading to a rupture of a fuel tank and a fire that broke out under the left wing of the aircraft.
Citing what it said was the unpublished full report, Liberation newspaper reported that BEA noted "several dysfunctions" in Air France's operation of the aircraft, "for example the use of certain outdated data in the initial phase of flight preparation and incomplete baggage handling".
"There is nothing new in this report," the Air France spokesman said. "An audit of company procedures was conducted last summer, recommendations were made, and most of those recommendations have already been put in place."