Early indications from the Concorde crash outside Paris yesterday suggested that cracks in the wings of the aircraft did not cause the tragedy. It comes after an admission earlier this week by the aircraft's operators, Air France and British Airways, that cracks had been found in the wings of several aircraft in the Concorde fleet.
On Monday, Air France said it had discovered cracks in the wings of four of its six Concorde aircraft following an admission by British Airways that it had grounded one of its Concordes when it discovered all seven of its aircraft had the same defect.
Air France detected the cracks in the wings of four of its aircraft "a few months ago" during safety checks. It said two of the four aircraft were in service and the other two had already been grounded for an unrelated periodical review. British Airways detected problems with its fleet after routine checks at Heathrow airport, but all the aircraft remained in operation until the cracks were found to have worsened in one of the aircraft last week.
The grounded British Airways Concorde is the 24-year Alpha Echo - one of the oldest aircraft in the fleet. British Airways said the cracks on its aircraft were about 2 inches long and were found in a 68 ft beam stretching through both wings. But the airline has insisted it would not fly any of its aircraft if they were a risk to passenger and crew safety. The Civil Aviation Authority had not opposed the continued use of the British Airways Concordes, a spokeswoman said, "and there is absolutely no risk to the public in the six other aircraft".
British Airways cancelled two Concorde flights between London and New York last night. The airline said it had "complete confidence in our Concorde aircraft and our engineering", but in the circumstances and while information was still being received from Paris it was taking "the unprecedented step" of cancelling its flights. Passengers booked on the flights were offered transfers and British Airways said it would announce later today whether to go ahead with Concorde flights due to leave from Heathrow in the next 24 hours.
As safety checks continued on its Concorde aircraft, British Airways said their thoughts were with Air France colleagues and those who had died. A statement said: "Our thoughts and sympathies are with our colleagues at Air France, and all those involved in this tragedy."