Concorde ‘Father’ in Spotlight Over Tyre Risk Oversight

The failure to address a tyre-related safety weak spot may end up costing the ‘father of the Concorde’ a suspended prison sentence. Henri Perrier, now 80 years old, directed the Concorde programme at Aerospatiale from 1978 to 1994. French proescutors have accused him of ignoring warning signs from a string of incidents involving Concorde airliners before the crash near Paris in July 2000.

The conclusion reached by a French accident inquiry in December 2004 was that the crash that killed 113 people was in part caused by a strip of metal that fell onto the runway from a Continental Airlines DC-10 that took off immediately before the supersonic jet. Investigators claimed that the Concorde ran over this titanium strip and one of its tyres blew out, sending debris flying into an engine and a fuel tank and setting it on fire. What the prosecutors now allege is that, during their 27 years of service, Concorde airliners suffered dozens of tyre blowouts or wheel damage that in several cases pierced the fuel tanks – a flaw that Perrier’s team and the French civil aviation are said to have overlooked. Prosecutors are seeking a two-year suspended prison sentence for Perrier.