Report claims Concorde disaster caused by tyre blow out
Thursday, 31 August 2000 23:17An official report into last month's Concorde crash which killed 113 people has confirmed that a burst tyre set off a chain of events that brought down the plane in flames. The report from French air investigators, the BEA say that they cannot be sure whether tyre fragments pierced the plane's fuel tanks or entered its engines.
All 109 passengers and crew, and four people on the ground, were killed when the New York-bound jet crashed into a hotel in Gonesse on the outskirts of Paris on 25 July. A full report, giving the conclusive reasons for the disaster, will not be ready for some months. Air France has not flown its five remaining Concordes since the accident and British Airways grounded its seven-strong fleet earlier this month, after it was revealed that the primary cause of the crash was a burst tyre.
