Crash of the Concorde

Snoopy2

New Member
Dateline NBC with a very interesting hour long piece on the circumstances surrounding the crash of the Concorde and the subsequent manslaughter charges brought by the French government against Continental airlines for that crash.

www.dateline.msnbc.com
 
It's an absolute crock how the French have tried to lay blame for that crash at the feet of Continental. The mere fact that Continental is willing to go into a French courtroom and fight says alot about the level of crockery in the charge.
Had occession to see the Corcorde up close when she flew into Rhode Island years ago.
Was an incredibly awesome sight!! A magical big white bird!
Two things that shocked me the most after seeing the Dateline piece was how fragile that bird actually was and how those crews felt the need to keep schedule. Amazing how that crew who left DC were content to fly an ocean route after being told about a hole in their wing until that American passenger with an aviation background literally had to put the crewman's head in a window to get him to see what was really going on. Even after the crew turned around and did a fly by at Dulles to show their damage they still want to fly to Europe until ATC got their point across. Scary!!
 
It's an absolute crock how the French have tried to lay blame for that crash at the feet of Continental. The mere fact that Continental is willing to go into a French courtroom and fight says alot about the level of crockery in the charge.
Had occession to see the Corcorde up close when she flew into Rhode Island years ago.
Was an incredibly awesome sight!! A magical big white bird!
Two things that shocked me the most after seeing the Dateline piece was how fragile that bird actually was and how those crews felt the need to keep schedule. Amazing how that crew who left DC were content to fly an ocean route after being told about a hole in their wing until that American passenger with an aviation background literally had to put the crewman's head in a window to get him to see what was really going on. Even after the crew turned around and did a fly by at Dulles to show their damage they still want to fly to Europe until ATC got their point across. Scary!!

I really enjoyed the show. And I'm with you on the crew that wanted to continue the one flight from dulles on to paris with the hole in the wing. I can't imagine their thought process on that. I know I certainly wouldn't want to fly an airplane going twice the speed of sound with a hole in the wing. Can you say structural integrity??
 
I just watched it. Im siding with Continentals arguement on this one.

agreed. I'm no accident investigator, but that missing spacer just seems like it may have caused unnecessary wear on the tires making them more susceptible to failure.. Also the tire blowout the one consultant was explaining seemed very similar, a piece flew up and put a hole in the wing...it just so happened that in that case there was no ignition of the leaking fuel.
 
I don't see this going to far, but again I know nothing about French law. But it seems that each other can contradict each other, so you would think a judge would throw this case out.
 
Unfortunately, the French are really going to try this and their court is not near as fair as you might think. They hate the US with a passion and will do everything in their power to hurt us through this lawsuit.

This is an opinion of mine only, based on my limited contact with the French nationals here and abroad. Including in France itself.
 
Why do they hate us? So what if we change the name of the french fries to the freedom fries

Not sure, most French people I have run into have been very nice and polite.


The French hate us because they think we are trying to take over the world and we hate them for not supporting us in taking over the world :)
 
Nah, I've been to France a lot and they don't hate us.

Most of the people that I've had a chance to bring up the issue wonder why we think they hate us.
 
Not sure, most French people I have run into have been very nice and polite.


The French hate us because they think we are trying to take over the world and we hate them for not supporting us in taking over the world :)

They hate us for being strong. We hate them for hating us after we saved them twice. Finally, they hate us because of widespread condom use by our doughboys in France during WWI. That was a significant chance for the French to upgrade their bloodlines but the Americans use of contraceptives stymied that.
 
Technically speaking, it can be debated that "The Great War" was a bailout of the English, if anyone.
 
Technically speaking, it can be debated that "The Great War" was a bailout of the English, if anyone.

That is actually a very correct statement, but didn't fit into my Franco-bashing.

I will use this opportunity to plug the WWI Museum here in Kansas City. It is a recently opened museum at the Liberty Memorial, the only WWI monument. It is an exceptional museum - my daughter and I enjoyed it very much. My Grandpa (my Dads dad) was actually a WWI vet so I have always been interested. What an amazingly atrocious war, even by war standards. Anyone that has an extended lay-over in KC should try to see this museum if at all possible - it is only about 20-25 minutes from KCI.
 
I will use this opportunity to plug the WWI Museum here in Kansas City. It is a recently opened museum at the Liberty Memorial, the only WWI monument. It is an exceptional museum - my daughter and I enjoyed it very much. My Grandpa (my Dads dad) was actually a WWI vet so I have always been interested. What an amazingly atrocious war, even by war standards. Anyone that has an extended lay-over in KC should try to see this museum if at all possible - it is only about 20-25 minutes from KCI.

How far is it from downtown? I seem to be in KC a lot.
 
I caught the end of it. Hopefully it's on again soon. It looked interesting from the last five minutes. I never even knew about the spacer, but I have to say that there are inherent risks to the operation of aircraft, and to blame a piece falling off of an aircraft for the crash of another is a bit of a stretch. To me, it doesn't say negligence, so much as it says happenstance. Could we not hold every pilot who passed by the piece without reporting it to equal blame? Could we not hold the airport operator to blame for not conducting a debris check? It's unfortunate that it happened, but pinning blame on a single entity is a bit off.
 
They hate us for being strong. We hate them for hating us after we saved them twice. Finally, they hate us because of widespread condom use by our doughboys in France during WWI. That was a significant chance for the French to upgrade their bloodlines but the Americans use of contraceptives stymied that.


:laff:

I don't remember that tidbit of data from my last 20th Century history course.
 
The French are still mad that English has taken over as the pre-eminent language of science and business in the world.

There was a time, not that long ago, when all diplomats spoke French - even the Asians!

There was a time, perhaps longer ago, when all scientific discourse between different cultures was conducted in Latin (several centuries ago) or German.

Nowadays, if you want to do business globally - you speak English!

Nowadays, if you want your scientific paper noticed - you publish it in English!

Why? Because of England? Silly rabbit...


The French still can't believe that they don't hold sway over the world cultural Zeitgeist. There is a common belief in the French intelligentsia that France should hold a pre-eminent place in world culture, and that the USA has somehow "stolen" this obviously superior French Weltanschauung of the world's shared culture.

(Interesting that these two terms come from German philosophy, no?)



That being said, I still love the French. Who wouldn't love a country with an official government department dedicated to preserving the purity of its language...


Plus, I love to eat in Paris! Just ask Doug!




Kevin
 
They hate us for being strong. We hate them for hating us after we saved them twice. Finally, they hate us because of widespread condom use by our doughboys in France during WWI. That was a significant chance for the French to upgrade their bloodlines but the Americans use of contraceptives stymied that.
I'd say the French had a pretty big part in saving our asses during the American revolution.
 
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