NEWS: Continental Airlines placed under investigation over Concorde crash, page 1

Continental airlines has been placed under investigation by a French court. The court is investigating manslaughter and bodily harm as it related to the Concord crash over 5 years ago. The crash may have been precipitated by a small piece of metal that had fallen from a departing Continental plane.

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PARIS (AFP) - US airline Continental was placed under investigation by a French court for manslaughter and bodily harm in connection with the Concorde crash five years ago, which a report found was caused by a piece of metal from one of its aircraft.

But a lawyer for the company said a further investigation would reveal Continental was not to blame for the crash of the supersonic airliner and the death of 113 people.

"During this procedure we will provide all the elements which are missing from the dossier and which show that Continental Airlines is not responsible for the Concorde crash," defence lawyer Olivier Metzner said.

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I think that the French authorities are using the metal strip as a smoke screen to hide the fact that there were serious flaws in the design of the Concords tanks. In addition there were clear indicators that a tire rupture could cause the very accident that brought the plane down. Several previous accidents that demonstrated this were ignored. The Concord was a great source of pride for the French as well as the British, and its achievements are not to be denied. But to blame a small strip of metal for a catastrophic flaw is wrong.