The trial of U.S. airline Continental and five individuals charged with the crash of an Air France Concorde that killed 113 people in 2000 is set to begin Tuesday in France.
The defendants include two employees of the U.S. carrier, two employees of Aerospatiale, the company that made the supersonic Concorde, and a French aviation official. All are charged with manslaughter.
The trial is expected to last four months.
The Concorde crashed in flames shortly after takeoff from Paris’ Charles de Gaulle airport on July 25, 2000, killing all 109 people on board and four on the ground.
French investigators said a strip of metal that fell off a Continental jet shredded one of the Concorde’s tires as it sped down the runway toward takeoff. Debris punctured the swept-wing plane’s fuel tanks, triggering a fatal fire within seconds.
The crash in 2000 was a factor in the decision to remove all Concorde jets from service three years later.
The first commercial passenger plane to fly faster than the speed of sound, the Concorde was flown by Air France and British Airways from 1976-2003.
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