Air France Flight 4590

About

Air France Flight 4590 was an international charter flight from Paris to New York. On 25 July 2000, a Concorde passenger jet operating the flight crashed shortly after takeoff, killing all 109 people on board and 4 on the ground. It was the only fatal Concorde accident during its 27-year operational history.

Whilst taking off from Charles de Gaulle Airport, Air France Flight 4590 ran over debris on the runway dropped by an aircraft during the preceding departure, causing a tyre to explode and disintegrate. Tyre fragments, launched upwards at great speed by the rapidly spinning wheel, violently struck the underside of the wing, damaging parts of the landing gear – thus preventing its retraction – and causing the integral fuel tank to rupture. Large amounts of fuel leaking from the rupture ignited, causing a loss of thrust in the left side engines 1 and 2. The aircraft lifted off, but the loss of thrust, high drag from the extended landing gear, and fire damage to the flight controls made it impossible to maintain control. The jet crashed into a hotel in nearby Gonesse two minutes after takeoff. All nine crew and one hundred passengers on board were killed, as well as four people in the hotel. Four other people sustained slight injuries.