Metal from other plane caused Concorde crash

A piece of metal that had fallen from another aircraft caused the catastrophic burst tyre that led to the crash of an Air France Concorde on take-off from Paris last month, French investigators confirmed yesterday.

A piece of metal that had fallen from another aircraft caused the catastrophic burst tyre that led to the crash of an Air France Concorde on take-off from Paris last month, French investigators confirmed yesterday.

The discovery, however, does nothing to reduce doubts about the future of the grounded supersonic airliner. Whatever caused the tyre to burst, the disaster revealed structural weaknesses in the Concorde which make it unacceptably vulnerable to such a banal incident, French officials say.

British and French government and industry officials are to meet in Paris on Thursday of next week to consider what steps might be taken to put the 12 remaining British Airways and Air France Concordes back into the air. French experts are more than ever convinced that Concorde will never fly again. British officials are said to have an open mind on whether the necessary modifications could be economically feasible or not.