British Airways Suspends Concorde Operations

Aug. 15, 2000 -- Weeks after the deadly crash of an Air France Concorde, British Airways today grounded its supersonic jets, saying British and French officials planned to revoke the planes’ airworthiness certification.

The airline’s morning flight from London to New York was canceled, as well as a later return flight from New York.

After the July 25 crash in Paris, which killed 113 people, British Airways suspended Concorde flights for one day. Engine intake of particles from a tire explosion is the suspected cause of that crash.

The airline has since said the plane was safe and continued its regular service. But, in a statement released today, BA officials said they had been notified that Britain’s Air Accident Investigation Branch and French authorities had agreed to suspend certification of the plane.

“As soon as we heard this, we immediately withdrew our supersonic fleet from service,” the airline said.

British Airways’ decision to ground its Concordes apparently was done with some haste. An early morning Concorde flight to New York from Heathrow was recalled to the airport gate, rolling back with 37 passengers aboard. The passengers were transferred to another aircraft. One British Airways Concorde flew empty, back to Britain.

Airline: Safety First

It’s unclear, however, what new finding may have led to the decision. The company did not elaborate on the reasons for the decision by regulators. But an official of Britain’s Civil Aviation Authority, speaking on condition of anonymity to The Associated Press, said the decision to suspend stemmed from the finding that the failure of a tire on the Air France Concordewas the cause of the accident.

French authorities are expected to explain on Wednesday the decision to suspend the jet’s certification.

“We have been in constant contact with the airworthiness authorities in the U.K. and France, the airframe and engine manufacturers, and Air France throughout Concorde’s flying life,and particularly closely since the accident in Paris last month,” said British Airways chief executive, Rod Eddington.

“Since then, we implemented an extensive series of additional procedures and checks on the aircraft’s airframe, engines, tires and wheels, hydraulics and other systems and operating procedures,above and beyond Concorde’s already demanding schedule of maintenance, inspections and operation parameters.

“The British CAA was in complete agreement with our decision to resume Concorde’s services shortly after the Air France crash.

“We were notified this morning by the AAIB that, in the light of latest information available to it, it and its French counterparts, the BEA, would tomorrow recommend that the certificate of airworthiness for the aircraft should be suspended.

“We discussed this with the CAA and we understand that it would be minded to accept this advice.”

There have been three incidents of tire bursts compromising fuel tanks on Concordes. The jets recovered safely in the first two, and a 1979 incident, when one of the tires of a British Airways Concorde burst on landing, led to a design modification.

That number of incidents per flights is very high. The Concorde has had only 80,000 flights, total. There are some 20,000 flights total among all passenger planes in the United States every day.

Questions Unresolved

“Until something can be done, either an improvement in the tire quality or some other change that can allow both British Air and Air France to turn to the population and say, ‘We have fixed the problem,’ or at least made one order of magnitude less likely to ever occur again, then unfortunately, the only rational thing to do is keep the airplane on the ground,” ABCNEWS Aviation Analyst John Nance said of British Airways’ decision.

Investigators say a stray piece of metal on the runway may have slashed a tire on Air France’s Concorde, triggering a chain of events that caused it to crash in flames into a hotel in the town of Gonesse minutes after taking off for New York.

All 109 people on board and four on the ground were killed.

Air France’s five remaining supersonic Concorde jetliners have been grounded since the crash. French Transport Minister Jean-Claude Gayssot has said the Air France Concordes will not fly again until experts understand exactly what caused the accident.

Mixed Reactions

At the airline’s Terminal Four at Heathrow, reaction among passengers boarding other flights was mixed.

“I’m sure today’s decision was done because of safety reasons and because of that I’m happy they have made it,” said Thomas Lee, 63, who was heading for New York.

Uli Pillau, 39, who arrived from Germany for a three-day business trip, called the decision by British Airways “unnecessary.”

“I think Concorde is a safe plane,” Pillau said. “An accident has happened just once in 25 years and if you look at other planes and aircraft there have been more accidents and crashes, so there’s no reason to suspend Concorde flights.”

ABCNEWS' Linda Albin and Lisa Stark, ABCNEWS Radio and The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.