Continental cleared....

[Mojocvh]

.....merde!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-20545201

Now who's left to blame????

The Airport authorities for not keeping the asphalt swept!!

[williamp]

air france for forgetting to fit a spacer into the wheel hub which meant the concorde veered to one side, away from the clean centreline

using the "wrong" runway where there was no wind...

...so I understand

[Mojocvh]

Shutting down a working engine, et al, it's quite a list isn't it?

[TheTurbonator]

There was also the possibility the aircraft was over it's maximum take-off weight for the conditions and temperature or at least on it's maximum.

As for the engines, engines 1 and 2 surged after the fuel ignited but engine 1 recovered. Engine 2 was shut down but the plane couldn't gain any airspeed which wasn't helped by the landing gear failing to retract due to severed cables and the wing began to disintegrate due to the fire and heat. Engine 1 then surged again but this time failed completely and the plane began to bank up to 100 degrees due to the asymmetric thrust. To try and recover the aircraft the crew reduced power to engine 3 and 4 but she ended up stalling and the crew lost control completely.

As with most incidents there are always several factors leading up to the inevitable. The Concorde accident in a way reminds me of the 1958 Munich disaster where the pilot was blamed but then later cleared 10 years later.

Also I thought it was decided very early on that the missing spacer for the landing gear didn't contribute to the accident?

ETA: As Mojocvh said in my opinion the ultimate blame is with the airport authorities for not checking the runway was clear before take-off, as was mandetory before all Concorde flights.

Edited by TheTurbonator on Saturday 1st December 07:54

[Mojocvh]

gear failing to retract

The green hyd system I believe was energised from the engine [2] that was shut down by the FE all on his own. It provides hyds to operate the uc......

[Simpo Two]

So are we saying that if the pilots had done the right things it was recoverable? I can't think so.

[TheTurbonator]

Simpo Two said:

So are we saying that if the pilots had done the right things it was recoverable? I can't think so.

I wasn't saying that all, under the circumstances I think the pilots did exceptionally well.