Concord Fire Online Radio

Concord Fire Online Radio:

Air France Flight 4590 was an international charter flight, from Charles de Gaulle Airport, Paris, to John F. Kennedy International Airport, New York, flown by an Aérospatiale-BAC Concorde. On the afternoon of Tuesday, 25 July 2000 at 16:44:31 local time (UTC 14:44:31), the aircraft serving the flight (registration F-BTSC) ran over debris on the runway during takeoff, blowing a tyre, and sending debris flying into the underside of the left wing, and into the landing gear bay.

The fuel tank inside the left wing was unusually full, and the resulting lack of air space in the tank caused it to rupture and send fuel pouring outward with great force when debris from the tyre struck the wing thus creating a shock wave that weakened the tank. Debris flew into the landing gear bay and severed power wiring, making it impossible to retract the gear as the aircraft climbed. Sparks produced by the broken wiring ignited fuel from the ruptured fuel tank and along with the fire came a reduction of thrust from Engine 1 and 2. Lack of thrust, the high drag caused by the inability to retract the gear, along with fire damage to the flight controls, made it impossible to control the aircraft with the result that it crashed into a hotel in nearby Gonesse two minutes after takeoff, killing all 109 people on board and four more people in the hotel, with six people in the hotel critically injured.