Investigators say Concorde fire may not have begun in engine

In this story: Little time to react Air France Concordes remain grounded RELATED STORIES, SITES

PARIS -- The fire that trailed an Air France Concorde as it took off from a Paris airport for a brief and deadly flight this week may have originated outside the jet's engines, investigators said on Friday.

The supersonic jet never got more than 66 meters (200 feet) off the ground during its final flight on Tuesday before it plunged into small hotel-restaurant complex in Gonesse, a northern Paris suburb, two minutes later.

All 109 people on board the plane and five people on the ground were killed. Searchers initially found four bodies in the hotel's rubble, but on Friday they recovered an additional body, bringing the crash death toll to 114.

"The origin of the fire seems to have been outside the engines," the French Transport Ministry in a statement released Friday afternoon. "It remains to be determined."

On Thursday, investigators reported that they had found tire debris on the runway that the jet had rumbled down at 402 km/h (250 mph) on its way to take off. The find indicated a blowout in one or more of the aircraft's truck-sized tires.

Such an event could have damaged the engines -- or ripped open a fuel tank. Friday's report -- and a new photograph clearly showing the left wing in flames as the jet lifted off the ground -- lent credence to that theory.

"Those flames confirm that the fire was a very big fire from outside the engine," said Patrick Amar, a technical adviser to the French Transport Ministry. "And that goes along with the last reports that probably a tire exploded while the aircraft was accelerating."

"Probably with the speed of the aircraft, the (exploding) tire probably made some holes in the structure, and it's possible some fuel came out from the aircraft and then on the back of the aircraft, at the engine, would be a very big fire," Amar said.

Air France Flight 4590 took off from Paris' Charles de Gaulle airport with 100 passengers and nine crew members on board, bound for New York. There, the chartered flight's passengers -- mostly German tourists -- were to board a ship for cruise to Ecuador.

But the pleasure flight went horribly awry -- and the disaster was filmed and photographed by a number of amateurs along the way.

The doomed jet's crew may have had little time to react to the events unfolding outside their plane -- all coming after the accelerating aircraft had reached the speed known as V-1, the last moment a Concorde can be aborted.

"After that speed the crew must take off," Amar said.

The crew was aware that the No. 2 engine, inboard on the left wing, had failed, and that the left wing's outboard engine, No. 1, was losing power. They also reported trouble getting the landing gear retracted. An air traffic controller told the pilot there were flames coming from the rear of the plane on take off.

The pilot, veteran Capt. Christian Marty, told the tower that he would try to get the plane to nearby Le Bourget airport, about eight kilometers (five miles) away. Just over a kilometer and a half (one mile) short of the airport, the Concorde pitched to the left and slammed into the hotel.

Air France said Friday that its Concorde flights would remain "suspended for the time being" as investigators focus on the possible causes the crash.

British Airways, the only other airline to fly Concordes, had resumed flights.

Air France also denied reports that mechanics had replaced an afterburner pump in the No. 2 engine on the morning of the crash. The French daily Le Parisian cited unnamed sources in its story, reporting that a problem with the pump could turn the back of the engine into "a real blowtorch."

Mechanics did replace a thrust reverser on that engine, at the behest of the pilot, just before the plane's departure. Investigators said the mechanics appeared to have followed proper procedure during the operation.

Investigators for the French Bureau of Accident Investigations said the details released in the aftermath of the crash were based on initial information, including readouts from the plane's flight and data recorders. A more thorough "preliminary" report will not be ready until the end of August.

CNN Paris Bureau Chief Peter Humi, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

Investigators report Concorde left tire debris along runway
Concorde pilot struggled to steer flaming jetliner toward nearby airport
'Black boxes' recovered at Concorde crash site
FAA investigating close call with 767 and Concorde at JFK
Supersonic Concorde wings its way to 30

Bienvenue sur le site de ADP (Paris Airports website)
Page d'accueil Air France (in English)
British Airways
Concorde
Air Transport Intelligence - Aerospace, Airlines, Airports and Aviation News and Information
EuropAmerica Cruises
Deutschland

Note: Pages will open in a new browser window

External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.