World News 01-09-2000 Final Seconds of Doomed Concorde Revealed who: French accident investigators what: Release transcript of final moments of doomed Concorde flight recorder where: Charles de Gaulle airport, Paris when: Yesterday snippet: "The final terrifying moments of Air France flight 4590 were revealed yesterday," reports The Guardian`s Jon Henley, "when French accident investigators released their preliminary report on last month`s Concorde crash outside Paris, in which 113 people died". A transcript from the black box recorder was released to the press yesterday and is reproduced in full online by The Mirror and The Times today, detailing the desperate 134-second dialogue between the pilot, the co-pilot, a flight engineer, an airport controller and a fire chief at Charles de Gaulle on July 25th. The first sign of trouble was spotted by the controller, who was heard to say "Concorde, you have flames... you have flames behind you." Pilot Christian Marty tried to advise the controller that he was taking the plane down to nearby Le Bourget airport. But before he could complete his sentence, says Justine Smith in The Mirror, his words were cut off. "The Air France Concorde exploded into a fireball on impact, killing all 109 on board and four people on the ground." The report by the French Accident and Inquiry Office (BEA) confirmed "that a piece of metal on the runway punctured one of the tyres on take-off, hurling debris upwards and bursting a fuel tank," says The Times. "Aviation experts are now doubtful that Concorde will fly again because the crash shows how vulnerable the design can be to a single blow-out." [... more]

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