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Air France Flight 4590 was an Aérospatiale-BAC Concorde, registration F-BTSC, on a scheduled international flight from Paris, France, to New York City. On 2000, local time 16:43 CET, it picked up a titanium alloy strip on takeoff. All one hundred passengers and nine crew members aboard the Concorde died when it crashed into a hotel in nearby Gonesse, while on the ground, four people were killed and one was critically injured. The flight was chartered by German company Peter Deilmann Cruises; the passengers were on their way to board the cruise ship MS ''Deutschland'' in New York City for a 16-day cruise to Manta, Ecuador.〔"(Concorde Crash )", ''The Canadian Encyclopedia''. 〕〔"('Black boxes' recovered at Concorde crash site )." ''CNN''. 2000. Retrieved on 2009.〕 This was the only fatal Concorde accident during its 27-year operational history. ==Event summary== Post-accident investigation revealed that the aircraft was at or over the maximum takeoff weight for ambient temperature and other conditions, and over the maximum structural weight.〔Page 32: "The maximum structural weight on takeoff being 185,070 kg, it appears that the aircraft was slightly overloaded on takeoff".〕〔Page 159 "14h40m01s () it can be deduced that, for the crew, the aircraft weight at which the takeoff was commenced was 185,880 kg, for a MTOW of 185,070 kg".〕〔Brookes, Andrew, ''Destination Disaster'', page 22, Ian Allan, ISBN 0-7110-2862-1〕 As it left the gate, it was loaded such that the centre of gravity was aft of the take-off limit.〔Page 159.〕 Fuel transfer during taxiing left the number five wing tank 94% full.〔Section 1.16.7.3 "The Fuel in Tank 5" (page 118): "Taking into account these calculations, we may consider that the quantity of fuel in tank 5 was practically that which was loaded on the apron, which represents around 94% of the total volume of the tank".〕 A twelve-inch spacer that normally keeps the left main landing gear in alignment had not been replaced after recent maintenance; however, the French Bureau for Accident Investigation concluded that this did not contribute to the accident.〔Brookes, Andrew, ''Destination Disaster'', page 19, Ian Allan, ISBN 0-7110-2862-1〕〔Page 155: "In conclusion, nothing in the research undertaken indicates that the absence of the spacer contributed in any way to the accident on 25 July 2000"〕 The wind at the airport was light and variable that day, and was reported to the cockpit crew as an eight knot tailwind as they lined up on runway 26R.〔Pages 17 and 170.〕 Five minutes before the Concorde, a Continental Airlines DC-10 departing for Newark, New Jersey, had lost a titanium alloy strip (part of the engine cowl, identified as a ''wear strip''), long, wide and about thick,〔Section 1.16.6.4 "Examination of the Wear Strip" (page 107).〕 during takeoff from the same runway. A runway inspection, scheduled for an hour and a half before the Continental airplane took off, had not been carried out.〔Section 1.10.2.2 "The inspections on 25 July 2000" (page 41): "Between 14 h 35 and 15 h 10, an exercise with several fire brigade vehicles took place on runways 26 right and 26 left. Taking into account this exercise, the runway inspection planned for 15 h 00 was put back. It had not been carried out at the time the Concorde took off (16 h 42 min 30s)".〕 During the Concorde's takeoff run, this piece of debris still lying on the runway, was run over, cutting a tyre and rupturing it. A large chunk of tyre debris () struck the underside of the aircraft's wing at an estimated speed of .〔 Section 1.16.7.2.1.4 "Possible Energy Sources " (page 115).〕 Although it did not directly puncture any of the fuel tanks, it sent out a pressure shockwave that ruptured the number five fuel tank at the weakest point, just above the undercarriage. Leaking fuel gushing out from the bottom of the wing was most likely ignited by an electric arc in the landing gear bay or through contact with hot parts of the engine.〔Section 1.16.8.3 "Ignition and Propagation of the Flame" (pages 120-123).〕 At the point of ignition, engines one and two both surged and lost all power, but engine one slowly recovered over the next few seconds.〔Section 1.1 "History of the Flight" (page 17).〕 A large plume of flame developed; the Flight Engineer then shut down engine two, in response to a fire warning and the Captain's command.〔Section 2.2 "Crew Actions" (page 166): "The exceptional environment described above quite naturally led the FE to ask to shut down the engine. This was immediately confirmed by the Captain's calling for the engine fire procedure".〕 Air traffic controller Gilles Logelin noticed the flames before the Concorde was airborne, however with only of runway remaining and travelling at a speed of , its only option was to take off. The Concorde would have needed at least of runway to abort safely. Having passed V1 speed, the crew continued the takeoff, but the plane did not gain enough airspeed with the three remaining engines, because damage to the landing gear bay door prevented the retraction of the undercarriage.〔Section 1.16.10 "Origin of the Non-retraction of the Landing Gear" (pages 134-135).〕 The aircraft was unable to climb or accelerate, maintaining a speed of at an altitude of . The fire caused damage to the port wing, which began to disintegrate—melted by the extremely high temperatures. Engine number 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 in an attempt to level the aircraft, but with falling airspeed they lost control and the aircraft stalled, crashing into the Hôtelissimo Les Relais Bleus Hotel near the airport.〔〔(The damaged hotel and the scorched field show the impact of the crash ), ''CBS News''〕〔(French police and rescue service workers inspect the debris of the hotel and the crashed jet. ), ''CBS News''〕 The crew was trying to divert to nearby Le Bourget Airport, but accident investigators stated that a safe landing, given the aircraft's flight path, would have been highly unlikely. As the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) transcript recorded it,〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.bea.aero/docspa/2000/f-sc000725/htm/annexes/annexe2.htm )〕 the last intelligible words in the cockpit (translated into English) were: :''Co-pilot'': "Le Bourget, Le Bourget, Le Bourget." :''Pilot'': "Too late (unclear)." :''Control tower'': "Fire service leader, correction, the Concorde is returning to runway zero nine in the opposite direction." :''Pilot'': "No time, no (unclear)." :''Co-pilot'': "Negative, we're trying Le Bourget" (four switching sounds). :''Co-pilot'': "No (unclear)." 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Air France Flight 4590」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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