Concorde was an extraordinary supersonic aircraft that could travel at over 2,100 km/h – more than twice the speed of sound. At one point, it did the fastest transatlantic flight from New York to London in two hours, 52 minutes, 59 seconds. That was epic, given that regular airlines did the same journey for over eight hours. Even with such blinding speed, the Concorde was not only considered the fastest, but also the safest way to travel by air.

 

However, in the year 2000, disaster struck. Five minutes before the Concorde, another aircraft departing for Newark, New Jersey, had lost a titanium alloy strip about one foot long on the same runway. During the Concorde’s take-off run, this piece of debris, still lying on the runway, was run over, cutting a tyre and rupturing it.

 

A large chunk of tyre debris (4.5 kilos) struck the underside, sending out a pressure shockwave that ruptured the number five fuel tank, just above the undercarriage. Leaking fuel gushing out from the bottom of the wing was most likely ignited through contact with hot parts of the engine.

 

Although the control tower saw the large plume of flame, and notified the pilot, with only two kilometres of runway remaining and travelling at a speed of 328 km/h, his only option was to take off. The Concorde would have needed at least three kilometres of runway to abort safely. The crew attempted to level the aircraft, but with falling airspeed, they lost control and the aircraft stalled, crashing into a hotel near the airport.

 

The crash of one Concorde contributed to the end of the entire company. A few days after the crash, all Concordes were grounded, pending an investigation into the cause of the crash. In March 2008, after massive losses and an irretrievable goodwill, manslaughter charges were finally brought against a very unlikely culprit, but rightfully so: the mechanic who replaced the wear strip that had been dropped on the runway before Concorde’s take-off.

Prior to this disaster Concorde had been running into financial issues due to low number of passengers. However this sad event may well have been the last straw that broke the camel’s back.

 

Without the Concorde humans moved a step backwards in terms of passenger vessels cutting down travel time.

 

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