Originally Posted by
paradoxbox
Which begs the question, if they had lost good ground steering why didn't they chop the throttles while below 80 or V1.
Although the missing tyre spacer was causing the wheel to shimmy, it didn't cause much steering difficulty.
The directional control problems only occurred after they hit the titanium strip, caused by the reduction of thrust on engines 1 and 2 and the drag from the burst tyre. The tyre burst at 175kts......way beyond V1. That being said, in hindsight a RTO with high speed runway excursion would probably have been their best (albeit small) chance.
As to sloppy practices.....If they were flying Concorde like that you can guarantee they were flying other aircraft like it too. The report didn't probe the culture within the airline that allowed the sloppy practices to creep in. I'd like to hope Air France did probe and develop culture/training to eradicate it.