This week, I will talk about the court decision in France about Continental Airline. The 25th of July 2000, Air France was flying ‘the Concorde’. Few minutes after the ascent of the plane, the plane took fire and it had to make a forced landing, but it failed. ‘The Concorde’ crashed and 113 people were killed.
The crash was caused because a piece of metal left on the runway after falling from a Continental Airline plane. The piece of metal should have caused a tire-burst in the Concorde and so a fuel tank got ruptured.
The Court in Paris has decided that Continental Airlines was responsible for this crash and they have to pay 1 million Euros.
John Taylor, a mechanic from Continental, received a 15-month conditional prison sentence because he shouldn’t have used the titanium parts to make repairs on the Concorde. The metal was known to be dangerous for airplane-tires.
Continental will appeal because they think that the verdict is absurd and completely based on French interests.
I think that Continental Airlines cannot avoid their responsibilities. They have to reimburse all the damage, for all the parties that have suffered. But maybe 1 million Euros is too much, because in the past, Continental Airlines already paid a fine amounting 200.000 Euros. On the other hand, you can see it as a way to avoid that there will be similar cases in the future. The mechanic received a conditional punishment, so in the future he will also be more careful.
Kimberley Prinsier3RP2
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-11923556
I think it is justified to punish the mechanic and the Continental Airlines because the crash was caused by a big mistake. I can understand that the family and friends of the victims wants justification. Because of the sentence the responsible persons are also a sort of victim.Besides the court has to give a sign to other airports that mistakes will be punished.
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I think it is a very big responsibility to check and repair an airplane. There are a lot of people on the airplane and I find it normal that continental Airlines have to pay 1 million Euros for the damage. This is a good sign to other airline companies that they have to check the airplanes attentive.
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