Concorde Crash

["Mark McCall" <mark@xxxxxxx>]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/europe/newsid_850000/850903.stm

A Concorde jet bound for New York has crashed shortly after taking off from
Paris, killing about 100 people.
The Air France aircraft crashed in flames into a Relais Bleu hotel in the
town of Gonesse north of the capital, two minutes after take-off from
Charles de Gaulle airport.

Eyewitnesses said the aircraft was not able to gain sufficient altitude
before it crashed.

"I saw the Concorde go by with its left side engine on fire and crash
a bit
further away, about two minutes after taking off," one witness told
the
French news agency AFP.

A spokesman for Air France said the flight had been specially chartered by
the German tour operator Deilmann.

First crash

The crash is the first of the supersonic jet built by Britain and France.

It comes a day after British Airways confirmed hairline cracks had been
discovered in the wings of all seven of its Concorde fleet.

The Concorde has been considered among the world's safest planes.

Its only major scare came in 1979, when a bad landing blew out a plane's
tyres. The incident led to a design modification.

The first of the aircraft flew in 1969. Air France and British Airways
operate 13 of the supersonic jets.

Air France officials have said in the past that their current fleet is fit
to fly safely until 2007.

More details are still coming in.

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