Doomed Concorde underwent last-minute safety checks

Workers sort through the wreckage at the crash site Wednesday

PARIS (CNN) -- Technicians carried out last-minute engine checks before Air France's Concorde took off from Paris on its doomed flight.

The pilots requested the unscheduled examination, which delayed the flight by about 30 minutes, as the crew prepared to taxi onto the runway.

The plane crashed outside of Paris minutes after take-off from Charles de Gaulle airport on Tuesday, killing all 109 people on board and four on the ground.

Air France spokesman Francois Brousse said: "There was work done on the plane just before the flight and there was a flight delay. It was work done on the engine.

INTERACTIVE A detailed look at the Concorde Shockwave needed to view images     Fact Sheet Supersonic vs. 'jumbo' jet in Trans-Atlantic travel    VIDEO CNN Chief International Correspondent Christiane Amanpour looks into the cause of the first-ever Concorde crash Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media) Ground shots of the crash site of Air France Concorde flight AF4590 Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media) News conference held hours after the crash by Air France and JFK Airport in New York Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media)     AUDIO Eyewitness and Federal Express pilot Sid Hare tells his account of the Concorde crash near a hotel outside of Paris 2.3 MB/55 sec. AIFF or WAV sound     INTERACTIVE POP-UP Images from the crash site near Charles de Gaulle airport outside Paris Take a look inside the Concorde Recent plane crashes     ALSO Germany pauses to remember plane crash victims More coverage     MESSAGE BOARD Air safety

"At this moment we absolutely cannot know if it had to do with the accident."

But he did not say whether the maintenance work was carried out on the same engine that was streaming fire as it took off.

Air France on Wednesday grounded all its remaining five Concordes, but British Airways resumed its normal supersonic service.

In Hanover, Germany, prayers were said for the victims at a memorial service attended by Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder. "Germany is shaken and stunned. What a farewell this is after the dreams that these people had," he said.

Relatives of the victims have begun arriving in Paris but they are not yet being allowed to visit the crash site.

Flight AF4590 took off with one engine on fire and managed to climb only 200 feet before crashing into a hotel, killing all 100 passengers, nine crew, and four people on the ground.

The pilot is reported to have told the control tower, "I have a problem. My number three and four engines are down. I'm turning back."

Investigators are decoding the aircraft's two flight recorders, the flight data recorder and the cockpit flight recorder, which could provide key evidence.

Teams of investigators from France, Britain and the United States are continuing the harrowing task of sifting through the charred wreckage.

They are collecting debris in an attempt to rebuild the plane as much as possible.

French Transport Minister Jean-Claude Gaysott said he wanted more checks on Air France's Concorde fleet, with emphasis on the recovered flight recorders, before the flights can resume.

"When we know a sufficient amount about them, and when we are in touch with our British colleagues, we will be able to consider the decision to resume," he said.

He said the French authorities did not want "to take any risk" and he added that if the flight recorders do not contain enough answers he would consider "asking for a new certification of the Concorde engine."

British Airways, however, decided to put its fleet of seven Concordes back into the skies. One took off from London's Heathrow Airport, bound for New York, on Wednesday.

BA suspended Concorde flights within hours of the crash, but said it now had "complete confidence" in its Concordes after receiving initial information about the crash, and conducting extensive overnight checks on its fleet.

One passenger on the BA flight to New York said: "Lightning doesn't strike twice."

Air France said that of the 100 passengers, 96 were German tourists on their way to New York for a sea cruise to Ecuador. Two other victims were Danish, another Austrian, and one a U.S. citizen.

'Black boxes' recovered at Concorde crash site
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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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