Why did the Concorde crash?

Answer 1

FLIGHT 4590

JULY 23rd 2000

AIR France CONCORDE

I've personally deleted the other persons answer because in was incorrect. The reason Air France Concorde crashed is because a cargo plane left shrapnel on runway (they were proseicuted) concordes tyre hit the material sending it crashing through fuel tank... causing the eventual crash.... in Concordes 27 year history this was the FIRST accident with a fatality... nothing to do with the crew or Concorde her self. If Boeing grounded planes after accidents there would be no planes in the sky... THE REAL REASON FOR CONCORDE GOING IS THAT "Airbus" REFUSED TO SUPPlY MAINTENANCE ONCE THEY TOOK OVER THE FRENCH SIDE.... its true... wikipedia.... its shocking! the worlds most amazing aircraft is now collecting dust in a museum because AirBus wouldnt maintain them! FACT!
Air France flight 4590 was a Concorde flight that crashed shortly after take-off from Charles de Gaulle International Airport. According the report released by those investigating the crash, a DC-10 that took off before the Concorde lost a small titanium piece that remained on the runway. When the Concorde was taking off, it hit the piece of debris, which then ruptured one of the tires of the landing gear. The tire shredded and threw up a big chunk of the tire into the underside of the wing at high speed (something over 300 kilometers per hour - close to 200 mph). The shock-wave from the impact caused a rupture in one of the fuel tanks right over the landing gear. Fuel leaking from the ruptured tank was ignited - probably by an electric arc in the landing gear bay, or possibly by some electric cables that got severed when the tire shredded. Two of the engines surged, lost power and then mostly recovered, but the flight engineer shut down engine #2 in response to the triggered fire alarm and a command by the captain of the flight.

As all this happened, the speed of the plane had passed the point of safely aborting the take-off. Between the loss of the one engine and the inability to retract the landing gear due to the severed cables, the plane could not get the airspeed up; it could neither climb nor accelerate. It was stuck flying at about 200 knots at about 60 meters (200 feet). As the fire continued, the wing started to disintegrate from the high temperature of the fire. With asymmetric thrust from the remaining 3 engines and a wing falling apart, the plane could not maintain a straight, level flightpath. It rolled over to one side and crashed into the buildings below.