Summary
Air France Flight 4590 was an international charter flight, from Charles de Gaulle Airport, Paris, to John F. Kennedy International Airport, New York, flown by an Aérospatiale-BAC Concorde. On the afternoon of Tuesday, 25 July 2000, at 16:44:31 local time (UTC 14:44:31), the aircraft serving the flight (registration F-BTSC) ran over debris on the runway during takeoff, blowing a tyre, which threw chunks of tyre into the underside of the left wing and into the landing gear bay with great force.
The fuel tank inside the left wing was full, with almost no air space inside. When the debris struck the wing and tank, it ruptured the tank, and fuel gushed out. Debris that flew into the landing gear bay severed power wiring, making it impossible to retract the gear as the aircraft climbed. Sparks produced by the broken wiring ignited fuel from the ruptured fuel tank. The fire reduced thrust in engines 1 and 2. Lack of thrust, the high drag caused by the inability to retract the gear, and fire damage to the flight controls made the aircraft impossible to control. It crashed into a hotel in nearby Gonesse two minutes after takeoff, killing all 109 people on board and four people in the hotel, and critically injuring six people in the hotel.
Key Learnings / Issues
- The aircraft was above the maximum safe takeoff weight due to miscalulations and oversight by the crew.
- The metal strip (from the DC-10) had been neither been manufactured nor installed in accordance with the procedures as defined by the manufacturer.
- A spacer was missing from the bogie beam on the left-hand main landing gear (and eventually found in Air France’s maintenance workshop).
- During its 27 years in service, Concorde had about 70 tyre- or wheel-related incidents, seven of which caused serious damage to the aircraft or were potentially catastrophic.
- Charges were laid against the head of the Concorde program, Concorde’s chief engineer, and the head of the French airline regulator. It was alleged that they knew that the plane’s fuel tanks could be susceptible to damage from foreign objects, but nonetheless allowed it to fly.
Quote
“The Concorde is great. It gives you three extra hours to find your luggage.”
Bob Hope