As previously mentioned in Admiral Cloudberg’s reporting, the flight took off overweight, but that was not deemed to contribute to the accident. Maintenance was also up to date and no malfunctions of any systems had been shown to contribute to the crash, either. The BEA findings show that a strip of metal from another plane taking off just before the Concorde was the cause.
As the plane accelerated down the runway, the front inner tire on the left primary landing gear ran over the debris, causing a slice to the high-pressure tire. This sent chunks of metal and rubber flying in all directions, destroying wiring and the wing’s underside. An immediate stream of fuel burst from the tank, flowing back toward the engine, and ignited due to a short circuit from exposed wiring. Fire expanded from under the left wing, causing two engines to lose power. The plane veered left toward a Boeing 747 with French President Jacques Chirac on board before the Captain, knowing the Concorde was on a direct collision course with the President’s plane, corrected the plane to the right, which also caused the nose to lift for takeoff. As the plane lifted off, calls from traffic control announced that Concorde was on fire and pilots attempted to point the aircraft toward a nearby municipal airport, trying to avert disaster.
The plane failed to gain enough speed to continue to climb and it quickly became impossible to control and correct for the engine failure and lack of speed. As the pilots furiously attempted to gain control, the plane rolled sharply to the left, followed by a spiral toward the ground. The flight recorder caught a final desperate “No!” from the First Officer just before Concorde plowed into the l’Hôtelissimo and erupted into a massive fireball.
[Featured image by Adrian Pingstone via Wikimedia Commons | Cropped and scaled | Public domain]
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