HOUSTON (July 31, 2001)—The families of five crew members on the ill-fated Air France Concorde that crashed last July 25 have filed suit against Continental Airlines and Goodyear, seeking unspecified damages.
The Concorde crashed shortly after takeoff, killing all 109 on board and four on the ground, after shards from an exploded tire punctured a fuel tank and the plane burst into flame.
The suit, filed by San Mateo, Calif.-based O'Reilly, Collins & Danko, contends Continental Airlines is liable, because a 17-inch long metal wear strip allegedly fell off a Continental DC-10 about five minutes before the Concorde took off.
Investigators concluded this strip of metal punctured a tire on the Concorde's main landing gear, causing it to explode. Goodyear supplied tires to Air France for the Concorde. The five crew members, all French citizens, were Jean Marcot, the co-pilot; Huguette Le Gouadec, head flight attendant; and flight attendants Patrick Chevalier, Florence Eyquem-Fournel and Herve Garcia.