Witnesses describe flight's final moments

Curious residents watch smoldering wreckage at the crash scene

Heat from explosion felt half mile away from crash

In this story: 'Like an atomic bomb' Witness said plane flipped Grim task of identifying charred bodies RELATED STORIES, SITES

From staff and wire reports

GONESSE, France -- Witnesses to short-lived Air France Flight AF4590 saw the Concorde jet struggle to gain altitude and turn before it plunged in flames into an almost-empty hotel in a Paris suburb.

One resident of the small French town believes the pilot -- who was killed Tuesday along with 108 others aboard the jet and four people on the ground -- was trying to avoid residential areas.

INTERACTIVE POP-UP Images from the crash site near Charles de Gaulle airport near Paris Take a look inside the Concorde Recent plane crashes     ALSO 'Black boxes' recovered at Concorde crash site Concorde frequent flier saddened by crash TIME.com: Time to retire the Concorde? French investigation launched into Concorde disaster Concorde: Charter company 'deeply shocked' British Airways halts Concorde flights following Air France crash Schroeder leads condolences Concorde safety in the spotlight Concorde: The supersonic airliner Concorde: Luxury at 60,000 ft    Concorde info: The Concorde jet is capable of traveling from Paris to New York in three hours, 45 minutes at a cruising speed of Mach 2 or 1,370 miles per hour. Capacity: Its seating capacity is 100 passengers and it usually has a crew of nine. Daily service between New York and Paris started in 1977. The Concorde holds two world speed records for commercial flights. In 1992, it circled the globe from east to west in 32 hours, 49 minutes and three seconds. Three years later, the Concorde flew west to east in 31 hours, 27 minutes and 49 seconds.

"I'm sure that the pilot was trying to avoid more-populated areas -- I think it was trying to get back to the airport or land in a field," said 51-year-old Christine Turpin, who watched the flaming plane screech 50 meters (164 feet) overhead.

"I thought it was going to land on my petrol station -- all I could think about was my daughter and granddaughter who were in the petrol station, I want to thank the pilot," she said.

The needle-nosed, supersonic jetliner crashed Tuesday two minutes after taking off from Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris. The crash was the first for the Concorde, which went into service in 1969.

'Like an atomic bomb'

Antonio Ferreira was tending his garden near the airport when he noticed something different about the jet overhead: The engines suddenly fell silent.

"We hear all the planes that pass overhead," said the 43-year-old Gonesse resident. "Then there was nothing. I looked up. It was like an atomic bomb, a mushroom cloud in the sky."

Samir Hossein, a 15-year-old student, was playing tennis when he and four friends saw the plane go by, fire pouring from the rear.

"It chopped off the tops of those trees and headed to the ground. The pilot tried to bank but the plane rolled over and smacked into the hotel, nose first and then turned over," he said.

Hossein saw flames shoot high into the air after the aircraft crashed, and there was at least one loud explosion.

He said the first rescue vehicles arrived three to four minutes after the crash.

Witness said plane flipped

Christian Dupont was working in a transport company about 400 meters (1,212 feet) from the destroyed hotel when he said he saw the plane trying to turn while flames licked at its fuselage.

"The pilot realized he was in difficulty and tried to turn around -- there were enormous flames coming out of the engine," he said. "The Concorde was turning, but it flipped over like a pancake and landed on its back."

Witnesses who rushed to the scene said the plane exploded on impact, setting trees ablaze and scorching the earth black.

Dozens of emergency vehicles jammed roads leading to the crash site, which was off-limits to reporters.

"What frightened me most was the heat of the explosion -- I could feel it in the lorry," said Willy Corenthin, who was driving his van a half- mile from the crash site.

Frederic Savery, 21, had just picked up his sister from work and was driving home when they saw the plane drop from the sky.

"The whole back end of the plane was on fire," he said. "We saw it start to turn, but we didn't hear a noise when it crashed. All of a sudden, everything was black. We stopped right there and called the firefighters."

An eyewitness describes the plane's fall from the sky

Firefighters poured water and foam for hours onto the barely recognizable wreckage, which was concentrated in an area about the size of a football field.

Grim task of identifying charred bodies

Even before the smoke cleared, police were putting out orange traffic cones to mark the positions of bodies they had located.

Crews carried the bodies away in black plastic bags to a stream of hearses taking the dead to a makeshift morgue set up in the Jacques Brel Auditorium in Gonesse.

As darkness fell, lights were brought in and officials at the scene were prepared to work through the night.

The German Foreign Ministry set up a crisis center at the German Embassy in Paris, which was helping to identify the dead.

FAA investigating close call with 767 and Concorde at JFK
May 25, 1999
Supersonic Concorde wings its way to 30
March 2, 1999

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