US airline Continental and French aviation officials have gone on trial for the manslaughter of 113 people in the Paris Concorde crash in July 2000.
The New York-bound jet crashed shortly after take-off from Charles de Gaulle airport on 25 July 2000, killing all 109 people on board and four hotel workers on the ground.
Two Continental employees, a former French civil aviation official and two Concorde engineers are being tried on manslaughter charges in a court near Paris, with proceedings expected to last four months.
A French accident inquiry concluded in 2004 that the disaster was partly caused by a strip of metal that fell onto the runway from a Continental Airlines DC-10 plane that took off just before the supersonic jet.
It said the Concorde ran over the super-hard titanium strip, which shredded one of its tyres. That caused a blow-out and sent debris flying into an engine and a fuel tank and set it on fire, according to the inquiry.
However, Continental has rejected that claim.
It argued that the fire began before the plane reached the spot where the metal strip lay and that Concorde suffered from dangerous design defects that were known about but not corrected.
Continental is charged over a failure to properly maintain its aircraft, along with two US employees: John Taylor, a mechanic who allegedly fitted the non-standard strip, and airline chief of maintenance Stanley Ford.
The former Concorde engineers and French aviation boss are accused of failing to detect and set right faults on the supersonic aircraft, brought to light during the investigation and thought to have contributed to the crash.
A French civil aviation official is accused of overlooking a fault on Concorde's distinctive delta-shaped wings, which held its fuel tanks.
Most of the victims' families agreed not to take legal action in exchange for compensation from Air France, EADS, Continental and the Goodyear tyre manufacturer.
A successful prosecution would result in a maximum fine of €375,000 for the airline and up to five years in jail and a fine of up to €75,000 for the individuals involved.
The Concorde made its maiden commercial flight in 1976.
Only 20 were made - six for development and the remaining 14 for flying mainly trans-Atlantic routes at speeds of up to 2,170km/h.
Air France and British Airways grounded their Concordes for 15 months after the crash and, after a brief resumption, finally ended the supersonic commercial service in 2003.
