A final decision on the cause of the crash of the Air France Concorde in 2000 will be handed down today from a French court.
The Concorde aircraft caught fire on take off from Paris's Charles de Gaulle airport on July 25, 2000 and crashed into a nearby hotel killing all 113 on board. All Concorde aircraft were retired after it ending supersonic air travel.
At the time, investigators said debris from a Continental Airlines aircraft on the runaway caused the Concorde's tyres to puncture during take-off, spraying debris into the underwing fuel tanks and sparking the fire.
The prosecution is seeking a fine and charge for manslaughter for Continental Airlines, an 18-month suspended sentence for the company's mechanic and his boss on manslaughter charges, a two-year suspended prison sentence for Henri Perrier, an 80-year-old former Concorde director who headed the plane's testing programme between 1978 and 1994. Perrier and Continental have denied any wrongdoing.
The investigation demonstrated Concorde's weaknesses were well known and the tyres had exploded several times in 27 years with flying debris piercing the fuel reservoir on more than one occasion.