Poorly written manuals caused the Concorde crash

[MintJulep]

Reference thread2-287407

The French courts have laid the blame on the unauthorized repair of the thrust reverser wear strips on the DC-10 that took off before the Concorde.

The "unauthorized" part is based largely on the infamous "metal strip" being titanium, not stainless as identified in the maintenance manual.

However, skimming through the accident investigation report it seems to me that the MacDonald-Douglas manuals kinda sorta suggest that "alternative solutions can be used for the
tools, equipment and consumables recommended."

Ok, maybe a bit of a stretch to say that an ambiguous manual was the cause of the crash. But that's not going to stop me from pulling this gem out the next time I'm given a POS manual as a deliverable.

 

[johnhors]

MintJulep, the French court decision is a sham.

Continental have been conveniently (for the French) and unfairly blamed for the crash.

Concorde being a joint venture between BAC (British Aircraft Corporation) and Sud Aviation, enabled British crash investigators to be present at the crash scene. These British investigators are completely at odds with the French conclusions, they disagree entirely with the French findings for the reasons behind the crash. The British investigators vented their anger and frustration by handing over their findings to the British media for publication, it made very interesting reading!

http://www.Roshaz.com

 

[KENAT]

johnors, don't suppose you have a link to the British version of events do you?

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[johnhors]

Kenat,

The "real" causes for the crash have been well documented over the last 10 years.

The most well known of which is the missing spacer on the landing gear axle:-

http://www.iasa.com.au/folders/Safety_Issues/others/concordespacer.html

It was a British investigator that discovered the spacer was missing in the landing gear axle at the crash scene where the wheels were still attached to the axle. The spacer was found on the mechanics work bench.

Other contributory factors include:-

The plane was over-weight.

The tyres were re-moulds (British Airways never fitted re-moulds), re-moulds on a plane with the highest take-off velocity of any airliner! Don't re-moulds on vehicles have speed limitations imposed?

Air France did NOT fit any of the recommended water deflectors to the landing gear. Had they done so (as BA did) then this would have helped to protect the wing from flailing rubber from the burst tyre.

The pilot shut down the engines on the burning wing side, though neither engine was actually on fire, he then had insufficient power to fly the plane!

There were several tv documentaries and articles in the press in the UK highlighting all of this (I bet they never showed them in France!).

http://www.Roshaz.com

 

[KENAT]

Johhhors, immediately after the event I was still in the UK and followed it to some extent but sadly memory fades.

Given the nimbyism in the US about Concorde generally, I don't remember seeing that much about it here.

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[johnhors]

Kenat, a typical French cover-up!

By a twist of fate it was the French authorities who also killed off Concorde's rival the Tupolev 144. At the 1971 (?) Paris Airshow , the French had a Mirage flying hidden in the low cloud cover with the task of filming the Tupolev's retractable front canards in action. The Russian pilot was forced to take evasive action to prevent a mid-air collision with the Mirage. This action led to him stalling the aircraft with insufficient altitude to recover, the rest as they is history!

The truth about this only emerged fairly recently (and that is without wikileaks!)

http://www.Roshaz.com

 

[hokie66]

johnhors,
Suggest you post the link in the Aircraft Engineering forum, where a parallel discussion is going on. I agree, typical French cover up. Continental should seek redress in US courts.