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Morning News

Concorde Crash: French Transport Ministry Officials Release New Information on Final Moments of Flight

Aired July 27, 2000 - 11:22 a.m. ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: We are going to shift gears and actually go to France, and that is where we find our Jim Bittermann.

Jim, I believe you have the latest on the investigation into the crash of the Air France Concorde?

JIM BITTERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Daryn.

Some interesting information has been coming out today about the final moments of that Concorde flight. We don't expect to get the final results of the analysis of the cockpit data recorders until sometime perhaps tomorrow or Saturday. But, in fact, there is other interesting information coming out from Transport Ministry officials about the last few moments of the flight.

What they tell is that, as the Concorde was taking off, just before rotation, which is that point where the nose wheel lifts off the ground and the plane takes to the air, just before that point. The control tower warned the pilot they could see a ball of fire at the rear of the aircraft. A few seconds later, the pilot radioed back saying that he had an engine failure in engine number two.

And on the audiotape from the cockpit, they can clearly hear the sound of the engine failure alarm going off. That sound is followed by a second alarm, the fire alarm going off. At that point, the control tower told the pilot he could do whatever he wanted to do. He had clearance to go wherever he wanted to go. They would clear the air traffic in order to get the plane back down to the ground safely.

The pilot, in his last communication, said he was going to try to make Le Bourget Airport, about five miles from Charles de Gaulle, and when headed in that direction when the crash occurred, about a mile from the perimeter fence of the Le Bourget.

Now, the Transport officials are also saying that they have talked to all of the mechanics involved in those last-minute repairs in the Concorde, and they apparently followed procedure, and that they are all cooperating with the investigation.

And they also say they are not only just looking at engine number two on the Concorde. but all the systems around engine number two, fuel systems in particular, because there was so much fuel outside the aircraft -- Daryn. KAGAN: OK, Jim, quickly, before we lose your satellite window here. Any new concern in the suburb, in the town of Gonesse, about the Concorde taking off over their town. This could have been a tragedy that was a lot worse if that plane crashed in a different area?

I think we are having some audio problems getting to Jim Bittermann. Jim thank you for that latest information from Charles de Gaulle Airport on the Concorde crash. One hundred and thirteen people lost their lives, 109 people on the airplane, four people on the ground.

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