25 July 2000
Air France Concorde, flight AF 4590, bound for New York, crashes near Paris killing 113 people. It had taken off from Charles de Gaulle airport with flames spewing from its engine before coming down in Gonesse, north of the French capital. All 109 people on board and four on the ground died.
August 2000
French Concorde fleet is grounded pending an investigation into the crash. Some doubt exists as to whether the iconic supersonic jets will fly again.
September 2000
Crash investigators report that a metal strip had fallen from a Continental Airlines DC10 onto the same runway, minutes before the Concorde took off. It was the likely cause of a tyre puncture which started a sequence of events that led to the Concorde exploding.
November 2001
British Airways Concordes resume regular passenger flights after £17m safety programme.
April 2003
BA and Air France announce plans to retire Concorde, bringing an end to nearly 30 years of commercial supersonic travel. A decline in luxury air travel as well as the Paris crash was blamed.
March 2005
A French judge places Continental Airlines under investigation for involuntary manslaughter.
December 2010
Continental Airlines and mechanic, John Taylor, were found guilty of involuntary manslaughter. Taylor was given a 15-month suspended prison sentence and Continental, now part of United Continental Holdings, was fined about €200,000 ($265,000) and ordered to pay Air France just over €1m (£847,000) for damaging its reputation.
Jason Rodrigues
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