Concorde Crash ============== 25 July, 2000 During the plane's take-off run from Charles de Gaulle Airport, a piece of titanium debris on the runway ruptured a tyre which subsequently burst. The debris was about three centimetres wide and 43 centimetres long. A large chunk of tyre (4.5 kg) struck the underside of the aircraft's wing structure at well over 300 km/h rupturing fuel tank number five above the landing gear. Leaking fuel was ignited by an electric arc in the landing gear bay or through contact with severed electrical cables. At the point of ignition, engines one and two both surged and lost all power, but slowly recovered over the next few seconds. A large plume of flame developed; the flight engineer[citation needed] then shut down engine two in response to a fire warning. Having passed V1 speed, the crew continued the take-off but they could not gain enough airspeed on the three remaining engines, because the undercarriage could not be retracted. The aircraft was unable to climb or accelerate, and it maintained a speed of 200 knots (370 km/h) at an altitude of 200 feet (60 m). The fire caused damage to the port wing. Engine one surged again but this time failed to recover. Due to the asymmetric thrust, the starboard wing lifted, banking the aircraft to over 100 degrees. The crew reduced the power on engines three and four to attempt to level the aircraft but with falling airspeed they lost control, crashing into the Hôtelissimo Les Relais Bleus Hotel near the airport. The crew was trying to divert to nearby Le Bourget Airport; accident investigators say that a safe landing with the flight path the aircraft was on would have been highly unlikely. ======================= A Concorde jet bound for New York has crashed in a ball of fire shortly after taking off from Paris, killing 113 people. The Air France aircraft crashed in flames into the Hotelissimo hotel in the town of Gonesse north of the capital, two minutes after taking-off from Charles de Gaulle airport shortly before 1700 local time (1500GMT). All 100 passengers - most of them Germans - lost their lives, alongside nine crew members and four people who were killed on the ground. Eyewitnesses spoke of a huge fireball and dense clouds of black smoke after the plane hit the ground. Following the crash, French Transport Minister Jean-Claude Gayssot ordered the Civil Aviation Authority to suspend all Air France Concorde flights pending an investigation. Air France said the passengers were travelling on a flight to John F Kennedy airport specially chartered by German tour operator Deilmann. They were on their way to join a cruise ship in New York bound for Ecuador. An emotional Peter Deilmann, who heads the tour company, told German TV he was "deeply shocked" by the disaster. Within minutes of the crash, dozens of fire-engines and ambulances raced to the scene to tackle the blaze and search for survivors. Sections of the Relais Bleu hotel had been reduced to rubble and twisted metal. The blackened hulk of the Concorde was barely recognisable. Engine on fire Air France confirmed that one of the plane's four engines had caught fire on take-off, minutes before the aircraft came down. Eyewitnesses reported seeing a fireball trailing from an engine on the aircraft's left-side, and that it was not able to gain sufficient altitude before it crashed. "When the plane crashed, there was a huge ball of fire and an enormous plume of black smoke," one said. Another told reporters the annex of the hotel was "totally in flames". French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin has been visiting the scene and the German transport minister is on his way. German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder expressed his deepest condolences, saying: "Germany and France are united in their horror over the accident, in mourning for the victims and in sympathy for their families."