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The only surprise is that the French took so long to give in to the people who want to see money from CO...The only responsible party is the French airport authority who didn't perform the mandatory FOD sweep of the runway which was prescribed before every Concorde takeoff.Had they done as they should have they'd have found the piece of metal that fell of that CO DC-10 and nothing would have resulted except a quiet inquiry with CO as to what caused that part to be there and fall off...

No shocker there, Continental has been blamed since day 1.

and I thought Americans were tort happy !According to US jurisprudence, a ruling against the American carrier would require proof that Continental either:Knowingly or intentionally caused that piece of titanium to fall onto the runwayORShowed a willful lack of maintenance - which would be pursued under negligenceFrom what is known about the unfortunate accident both of which would be extremely difficult to prove in an American courtroom - However - in the current state of world affairs, with our current President ticking off most of Europe - I wouldn't be surprised if an anti-US French court lay blame on Continental.It's a real shame - those Speedbirds deserve to fly - it's unfortunate that the design flaw was not corrected sooner. Our own NTSB and FAA warned both British Airways and Air France about this very possibility after an incident in the US with a Concorde tire failure on takeoff. Nothing was ever done.

That's why it'll never go to a US court but rather a French one... Can't have a biassed judge after all, can you (especially if that judge won't tell you those dirty Yankees are evil wrongdoers).

Evil ? -- nahhhhh - W prays all the time, don't he - - :-smile12

That's the French opinion of Americans, not mine...

Hi,Well, actually, the title is misleading, it's not really what it says on the article: CO hasn't been blamed yet, CO'liability still needs to be proven, so no need to jump to conclusions too quickly and to start another arguments between both sides of the pond,Regards,Francois

>That's why it'll never go to a US court but rather a French>one... Can't have a biassed judge after all, can you>(especially if that judge won't tell you those dirty Yankees>are evil wrongdoers).The crime should be tried in the country where it was commited under local laws. THAT is why the case won't go to a US court. The american justice system really have nothing whatsoever to do with this case.-

That depends on the terms of the contract under which CO operates to CDG. If that contract is closed under US law it should fall under US law.Of course that would prevent a lot of easy money for the ambulance chasers who are probably more than willing to take on some French leeches (oops, lawyers) and move their circus to Paris.

>That's the French opinion of Americans, not mine...:-doh :-doh gotcha, thanks for that :)

Everyone has his/her blond moments :-lol

jrwenting"That depends on the terms of the contract under which CO operates to CDG. If that contract is closed under US law it should fall under US law."Not necessarily so - it depends on what the French national law is on the matter. Contract law cannot override national jurisprudence.

>didn't perform the mandatory FOD sweep of the runway which was>prescribed before every Concorde takeoff.Incorrect there I'm afraid. Nothing mandatory about it. Concorde wasn't treated by the airport authorities in any way different to any other aircraft and only performed runway sweeps once per day and at any time FOD was reported on the runway.EDIT ...from Enquiry...

What steps are taken to detect debris on runways, and are they enough? There are no rules about runway checks, but most airports check runways for debris at least once a day and immediately remove any debris reported by pilots during their take-off or landing runs.

Paulhttp://www.strontiumdog.plus.com/conc_capt_ba.jpgConcorde Training Captainwww.BAVirtual.co.uk