SUPERSONIC SMASH
How piece of metal thinner than a PENNY caused Concorde crash which killed 113
CONCORDE passengers could hardly contain their excitement as they set off to travel from Paris to New York in a record-breaking three-and-a-half hours one afternoon in July 2000.
But within seconds of the jet setting off on the runway, every air traveller's worst nightmare became a reality as the Concorde's wing erupted into flames.
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Although the burning plane managed to take off, less than two minutes later it fell helplessly from the sky into a 40-room hotel.
A total of 113 people died in a hellish fireball — all 100 passengers plus nine crew on board, and another four in the hotel on the ground.
The jet could fly at over twice the speed of sound and get between Paris and New York in under three-and-a-half hours.
But the disaster could have been avoided - is it wasn't for a rogue piece of metal less than the size of a penny.
Now a new Channel 5 documentary, Inside The Cockpit tells the incredible story of how one of the most famous catastrophes in aviation history unfolded.
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High-speed disaster
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Air France Flight 4590 from Paris to New York ran into problems almost instantly during take-off.
From the tower, air traffic controller Gilles Logelin watched in horror as flames erupted from the Concorde's wing as it gathered speed on the tarmac.
Gilles immediately raised the alarm and radioed the pilots of the 1,350mph Concorde to warn them of the huge fire.
But pilot Christian Marty had no choice but to push the throttle forward; He'd already reached the point of no return during takeoff, when the aircraft is going too fast and there's not enough runway left to abort safely.
To make matters worse, the flaming Concorde was on a near collision course with a Boeing 747 at the end of the runway carrying the French President at the time, Jacques Chirac.
Captain Marty got the Concorde into the air - but within seconds, Gilles watched in stunned silence as the smouldering jet dipped out of view before being replaced by a mushroom-shaped plume of black smoke rising on the horizon.
'I was totally engulfed in flames'
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Just under four miles away from the airport, Brit Alice Brooking was chatting on the phone to her sister from her room in the Hôtelissimo Les Relais Bleus Hotel in Gonesse.
At around 3:44pm, the doomed Concorde smashed into the side of the hotel and exploded, instantly vaporising everyone on board and four people in the hotel in a gigantic fireball.
Alice said: "There was this huge explosion. I remember turning round after the phone line went dead and seeing the walls of my hotel room caving in, and the pictures coming down from the wall.
"As soon as I opened the door, of course, I was totally engulfed in flames. The heat was phenomenal."
As jet fuel flames ripped through her hotel room, Alice made the split-second decision to jump out her hotel window.
She managed to get out just in time and ran for her life as the hotel was destroyed in the inferno behind her.
Total devastation
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In the days afterwards, air crash investigators descended on the scorched site to piece together the dramatic series of events that led to the accident.
Most of those on board were German tourists heading to America to begin the holiday of a lifetime: a luxury 15-day cruise through the Caribbean.
But after their dream trip turned into a nightmare, a screened perimeter was set up and traffic cones were used to mark the location of charred bodies — or what was left of them.
Authorities assumed an engine fire would be to blame, but pictures of the plane during takeoff showed the fire was actually coming from a fuel tank in the wing.
And when they inspected the runway, they made a chilling discovery: on the tarmac they found a small piece of jagged metal 1.4mm thick - thinner than a penny.
One of the Concorde's tyres had exploded during takeoff but investigators didn't know why.
Now they were starting to get answers.
Deadly shock wave
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The titanium strip found on the runway matched a cut in the tyre that exploded.
Investigators worked out that the Concorde's wheels had run over the shard of metal during takeoff — but how had the punctured tyre caused a fuel tank in the wing to rupture?
They soon discovered that a four-and-a-half kilogram lump of rubber had blown off from the tyre when it exploded.
Concorde pilot John Hutchinson explains: "That lump of rubber parted company with the tyre more or less with the velocity of a missile.
"And it went absolutely slamming up into the underside of the wing by tank number five, and it set up a shock wave in the fuel tank."
The shock wave from that was powerful enough to cause the fuel tank to burst.
High-octane fuel gushed from the wing, and either the heat from the engines or a spark from the landing gear caused the fuel to ignite.
Once in the air, the intense fire was melting the wing as the pilot tried to keep control.
Critical crew mistakes
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But some say the metal strip on the runway wasn't the only reason the disaster happened.
When Captain Marty took the Concorde into the air to avoid President Chirac's plane, his aircraft was way below the normal takeoff speed.
This was partly because the aeroplane was over its usual weight because of excess fuel and baggage.
And immediately after takeoff, the flight engineer in the cockpit shutdown one of the jet's engines he mistakenly thought was causing the fire.
If the crew had followed normal procedure and run a fire drill, they might have had more time to turn back around or navigate to another airport for an emergency landing.
But shutting the engine down unnecessarily sealed the fate of the flight.
The Concorde's speed was dropping during its brief airtime due to the lack of power.
It also rolled over due to the imbalance of thrust as most power was coming from one side of the plane.
With the speed slowing and the wing disintegrating, the Concorde stalled and dropped from the sky.
Mass manslaughter trial
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It wasn't long before the finger of blame for the deadly titanium strip was pointed at a Continental Airlines DC-10, which had used the same runway as the doomed Concorde.
Continental Airlines was charged with being criminally responsible for the accident when it was found that the metal strip had fallen off its DC-10.
The mechanic who'd poorly fitted the strip to the DC-10, John Taylor, was also accused of manslaughter.
Both Continental and Taylor were found guilty of the crimes in 2010, but the decision was later overturned on appeal.
The airline was still ordered to pay 70 per cent of the €100million in compensation to the families of the victims.
'It has made me think differently about life'
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After the crash, Concorde grounded its entire commercial fleet of 16 planes as bosses spent millions improving the design of the aircraft, installing burst-proof tyres and Kevlar-lined fuel tanks.
But the disaster, Concorde's only fatal accident in its 27-year operational history, severely damaged the supersonic aeroplane's reputation.
And just before the fleet was set to resume flying in late 2001, the September 11 attacks took place in New York.
This caused passenger numbers to fall even further and, in 2003, Concorde stopped flying for good.
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The catastrophe in Paris left a huge scar on the airline industry — as well as irreversibly changing the lives of the few survivors close to the crash.
Alice Brooking, who escaped the hotel as it burned in Concorde's fuel, said: "It has made me think differently about life because you realise how fragile it is.
"And you realise, more importantly, the utter unpredictability of it."
Inside the Cockpit: The Concorde Crash, airs on Channel 5, Friday 4 October 9pm
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