Concorde crash trial begins with bid to drop proceedings

The trial examining the crash of an Air FranceConcorde jet that killed 113 people a decade ago began in a French courtTuesday with lawyers for Continental Airlines, one ofsix defendants,urging the court to drop the proceedings.

U.S.-based Continental Airlines and five individuals, including thoseassociated with the manufacture, maintenance and operation of the supersonic airliner, are facing charges of manslaughter in connection with the July 25, 2000, crash. The Concorde jet crashed shortly after takeoff fromCharles de Gaulle airport in Paris, killing all 109 people aboard mostly German tourists and four people on the ground.

The court in Pontoise, north of Paris, will examine who, if anyone, was responsible for the accident.

French investigators saya strip of metal that had fallen off a Continental plane onto the runway caused a tire to burst on the Concorde, sending debris into its fuel tanks.

A French judicial inquiry also determined the tankswere insufficiently protected from shock and that Concorde's makers had been aware of the weakness since 1979.

Cause of crashdebated

Presiding Judge Dominique Andreassieropened proceedings by reading outthe victims' names. The investigation leading up to the trial has produced 80,000 pages of information to be reviewed during the trial, which is expected to last four months.

Continental lawyer Olivier Metzner andthe attorneys ofseveral other defendants have urged the court to call off the proceedings.

Metzner said drawing up a new trial order would be "a favour for the victims, so they know thetruth about who was responsible for all this."

Metzner has argued the Concordecaught fire before it reached the debris from the Continentalplane and saysthe U.S. airlinehas been unfairly scapegoated. He says the investigations into the crash were flawed anddiscounted the accounts of firefighters, pilots and other witnesses who saw the fire on the jet seconds before it reached the strip on the runway.

Request to call off trial 'totally scandalous'

The families of most of the people who died in the crash received compensation long ago and arenot taking part in the trial proceedings. However, relatives of the pilot, Christian Marty, will be present and say they are looking for answers.

The lawyer representing Marty's family, Roland Rappaport, called Metzner's demand to call off the trail off "totally scandalous."

Rappaport then went on to say that he was skeptical of the claim that the metal strip was the initial cause of the crash.

"It is unimaginable that all it takes is a burst tire to crash an airplane," he said in court.

Aside from Continental, the other defendants on trial are: Claude Frantzen, former head of training at the French civil aviation authority; Jacques Herubel, a top engineer for aerospace manufacturer Arospatiale,which helped build the Concorde;Henri Perrier, the formerhead of France's Concorde program; and Continental Airlines employees John Taylor, who is alleged to have installed the defective metal strip, and Stanley Ford, chief of maintenance.

Thelawyersfor the defendants say they were not to blame and argue the crash could not have been predicted.

The manslaughter charges carry penalties of up to five years in prison and a fine of 75,000 euros, ($111,000 Cdn), but it is more likely that the defendants will get suspended sentences.

Air France and British Airways retired their Concorde fleets in 2003.