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G-BOAF operates the BA001 on July 26th
2000 |
On July 25th only hours
after the accident in Paris, British Airways decided to cancel their
BA003/4 evening Concorde services as a mark of respect to those who
died. The next day Concorde was back in the air as the UK based airline
had maintained its confidence in the fundamental safety of Concorde's
design.
"BA took the decision
to go ahead with the flights to New York after carrying out extensive
checks overnight on its fleet."
"We have complete
confidence in our Concorde aircraft and we believe there is no
technical, safety or operational evidence to suggest that Concorde
should not operate safely into the future," said BA's customer services
and operations director Mike Street.
Mike Street said: "BA's
first concern is always safety. All our aircraft are subject to
continuing and exhaustive safety checks."
"We have complete
confidence in our Concorde aircraft. We cancelled last night's two
services while initial information on the Air France tragedy was coming
in."
Mr Street went on: "Now
we have had initial information from Air France and other relevant
organisations from yesterday's incident. We have carried out extensive
checks overnight to our Concordes operating today - to engines,
airframes, hydraulic and other systems. "
"We have liaised
closely with the relevant air safety authorities and the aircraft and
engine manufacturers. We believe there is no technical, safety or
operational evidence to suggest that Concorde should not operate safely
in the future."
He said also that "No
information from Air France or the French or British airworthiness
authorities which leads us to believe that we should ground BA's
Concorde fleet".
Mr Street added:
"Meantime, our thoughts and sympathies remain with our colleagues at Air
France, and those involved in this tragedy. We have been in touch with
Air France regularly since yesterday's tragedy and offered any
assistance we can provide."
Right on time the BA001
departed from Heathrow shortly after 10:30, 49 passengers were on board
out of 78 that had originally booked.
Concorde's Last Flight
The escort planes
are the Royal Air Force Aerobatic Team, The Red Arrows.
|
G-BOAG departs from New York, as
BA002, on July 26th (Reuters) |
Speaking after
checking-in at Heathrow, South African stockbroker Steven Bacher, 39,
said he was undaunted by the tragedy in Paris.
"It's my first and I
hope not my last flight on Concorde. I will be nervous for the first
five minutes but after that I will be fine."
Brian Pople, an
electrical contractor from Watford, said: "Lightning doesn't strike
twice, It's only happened once in 30 years. If I thought it wasn't safe
I wouldn't be going.
Additional safety
checks were carried out daily and for the first 2 weeks in August the
airline continued to fly its flagship BA001/002 services between London
and New York. During the quiet month of August, the airline would
traditionally not operate the evening BA 003/004 services, as many of
the business client that these flights served would be on annual
holiday.
|
Passengers depart from G-BOAG in
Gander |
Minor technical
problems that occurred during this time, that would usually be never
mentioned, were picked up by the media as big events - although in
reality they were nothing more that inconveniences. On one occasion a
back up aircraft had to be substituted when the ground engineers could
not connect the re-fuelling hose to G-BOAG for the morning departure to
New York. When the aircraft carried out the next service that evening,
fuel fumes seeped into the cabin though Concorde's Achilles heel.....its
complex air conditioning system. As a safety precaution the aircraft
diverted to Gander to be met by the worlds media, who had the story they
were all looking for.
The Aircraft's case not
helped by the fact that a passenger on board had a video camera with him
and was recording everything that went on, including a very worried
looking Tony Bennett and George Benson. Once the aircraft landed he made
the tape available to the TV news media, who beamed it around the world.
The killer blow to the
operation came only a few weeks later on August 15th 2000: As the
morning BA001 service, being operated by G-BOAC, was taxing from
Heathrow's terminal 4 to the runway, British Airways were contacted by
the CAA to tell them that Concorde's certificate of airworthiness would
be officially withdrawn the following day August 16th 2000.
|
G-BOAC is towed back to the gate
on August 15th 2000 |
Preliminary
investigation results from the accident site had found that the main
cause of the accident was a tyre burst. Although the actual sequence of
events turned out to be a very complex chain, everything appeared to
start from that one initial burst.
Such an event should
not be able to bring down an airliner, so the aviation authorities had
no option but to suspend the aircraft airworthiness type certification.
The chief executive of
British Airways, Rod Eddington, explained the unprecedented step to
ground the aircraft:
"We were notified this
morning by the Air Accidents Investigation Branch that, in the light of
latest information available to it, and its French counterpart, the BEA,
it would tomorrow recommend that the certificate of airworthiness for
the aircraft would be suspended. "
"We discussed this with
the CAA [Civil Aviation Authority] and we understand that it would be
minded to accept this advice."
As speculation grew
about Concorde's future, David Learmount of Flight International
magazine said: "This action is basically saying that this aircraft is
not airworthy"
"If modifications are
possible, and needed, then the airline will have to decide whether it
would be commercially viable to do so."
The CAA said that in
discussions with the international team investigating the crash it had
become aware that the likely interim finding of the inquiry was that "a
single tyre burst" had caused the catastrophe - Concorde's first fatal
accident in 25 years of commercial operation. It said the authority
believed that Concorde's operating certificate should now be suspended
"to enable further measures to be considered to ensure a satisfactory
level of safety exists with regard to the risks associated with tyre
bursts of Concorde"
At the time many media
organisations criticised British Airways for its decision to continue
flying the aircraft. Chief executive Rod Eddington defended the decision
saying that he did not regret the decision to keep flying: "We took the
right decision at the time," he said. "We worked closely with the
investigators and regulators on a daily basis. We have been flying this
aircraft in commercial service for 25 years. It's done 50,000 flights
with us and it has a terrific record."
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The aircraft is towed to the hanger,
to face an uncertain future |
G-BOAC was taxied back
to the gate and the passengers disembarked to be flown to New York on a
subsonic aircraft. The aircraft was towed back to the British Airways
maintenance hanger where it remained for more than 23 months, far longer
than anyone ever imagined.
As well as the BA001
service being cancelled the return flight from New York also had to be
cancelled. BA was given special dispensation by the CAA to fly the
aircraft, G-BOAB, back from New York with only the flight deck crew on
board. Captain Les Brodie and his crew flew the aircraft across the
Atlantic hoping that they would not be the final crew to ever fly
Concorde from New York. On Arrival back in London the aircraft taxied
straight back to the BA Technical area and into storage.
Was the Concorde story
at an end or was this just another chapter in the story - that was the
question that everyone wanted answered but no one at this stage could
even begin to answer. The pessimists were heard to say she would never
fly again. The optimists' views were very different.
