World

New Details In Concorde Crash

January 5, 2001 / 11:43 AM EST / AP

It appears "more and more probable" that debris from a punctured tire penetrated a fuel tank and sparked a fire that likely caused the deadly Concorde crash outside Paris in July, French investigators said in a report released Friday.

The French Accident and Inquiry Office also said in its report that six prior incidents in which burst tires had perforated Concorde fuel tanks had occurred between June 1979 and October 1993.

The report said that of 57 cases of tire bursts, 30 occurred on Concordes operated by Air France and 27 that belonged to the British Airways fleet. In 12 instances, wings or tanks incurred structural damage, and in six cases, fuel tanks were penetrated.

France grounded the elite jets immediately after an Air France Concorde crashed into a hotel in the industrial town of Gonesse outside Paris on July 25, killing all 109 aboard and four people on the ground.

British Airways, the other airline with a Concorde fleet, kept its planes flying until shortly before the jets' airworthiness certificate was withdrawn in mid-August.

Investigators believe the crash was likely caused by a stray piece of metal on the runway that gashed one of the plane's tires. The burst tire is believed to have catapulted pieces of rubber toward the fuel tanks and triggered a fuel leak.

Authorities in London have said that tests on fuel tank liners were expected to begin in February on British Airways' Concorde planes.