Continental, welder guilty in Concorde crash trial

PONTOISE, France, (Reuters) – A French court today  found Continental Airlines and a mechanic at the airline guilty  of involuntary manslaughter for their role in the 2000 Concorde  crash that spelled the end of the supersonic airliner.
The airline, now United Continental Holdings following a  merger, and aerospace group EADS must split 70-30 any damages  payable to families of victims of the crash, which killed 113  people, the court ruled.
The verdict exposes Continental and EADS to damages claims  that could run to tens of millions of euros. The airline was  fined 200,000 euros by the court and welder John Taylor was  given a 15-month suspended prison sentence.
Continental Airlines said it would appeal what it called an  “absurd” verdict. Taylor’s lawyer said he would also appeal.
“I do not understand how my client could be considered to  have sole responsibility for the Concorde crash,” lawyer  Francois Esclatine told French iTele television.
The court said EADS, which now owns the French factories  which partly built the Concorde airliners, had some civil  liability in the crash, which hastened the end of an era of  glamorous supersonic travel between London, Paris and New York.
The Air France Concorde, carrying mostly German tourists  bound for a Caribbean cruise, was taking off from Paris on July  25, 2000 when an engine caught fire. Trailing a plume of flames,  it crashed into a hotel near Charles de Gaulle airport.
All 109 passengers and four people on the ground died.   The court in the town of Pontoise north of Paris blamed  maintenance practices for the fact that a small piece of metal  dropped off a Continental aircraft that took off just before the  Concorde and punctured its tyres, sending debris into the  Concorde’s fuel tanks and sparking a fatal fire.
The crash hastened the demise of Concorde and its two  operators, Air France and British Airways, took the plane out of  service in 2003.
EADS referred queries on Monday’s ruling to its lawyer in  the case, who was not immediately available for comment.
The court found three French aviation officials not guilty.