French investigation launched into Concorde disaster

Teams of investigators have begun the grim task of sifting through the debris from the crashed Air France Concorde in a bid to determine the cause of the catastrophe.

The French government agency that is to investigate the crash -- Bureau Enquetes-Accidents -- said it had dispatched an accident team to the site and had asked for help from the US National Transportation Safety Board.

Two British air accident investigators flew out immediately the crash happened, and a third will follow Wednesday.

According to a 1978 Memorandum of Understanding, experts from both countries are required to participate in the investigation of any Concorde accident.

Jacques Gererd, of the Direction General de L'Aviation Civil, said: "Investigators will publish an interim report as soon as possible. A full report, however, could take months to prepare."

The investigators first task will be to find the two aircraft flight recorders, the flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder, which will provide vital information into why the supersonic plane plunged minutes after take-off.

Firefighters poured streams of water on the blackened wreckage, which had broken up into scattered, smoking chunks. The remains of the Concorde were barely recognizable as an airplane fuselage.

The hotel was in flames after the crash, and sections had been reduced to rubble and twisted metal.

There was no immediate word on what might have caused the crash of the jet, which had been in service since 1980 and had just had a mechanical checkup on July 21. In the more than 30 years that Concorde jets have flown, none had gone down.

The investigators will want to recover as much of the plane as possible and will attempt to rebuild it, piece by piece. Air France officials told CNN the crash apparently resulted from engine trouble.

Speaking at the crash site, the French Minister of Transportation, Jean-Claude Gayssot, said that, as was the custom, a judicial enquiry had been opened to investigate the cause of the crash.

Witnesses said the jetliner burst into flames at an altitude of 200 feet, with its nose up. A man at a training centre near the crash site of the crash said he heard an explosion and then looked into the air to see the plane coming straight at the building.

"It was flying very low with fire on its wing. The plane tried to do a half-turn in the direction of the airport, but then it fell to the ground. There was another explosion, and a ball of fire," he said.

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