French Concorde passes its first big test

AN AIR FRANCE Concorde took to the skies from Paris today for the first time since last summer's crash which killed 113 people.

With visibility restricted by fog, crowds of onlookers who had gathered to witness the now unique event could only hear the thunder of the jet engines as the plane glided gracefully from the runway.

The jet was flown at subsonic speed from Charles de Gaulle airport to the Istres air force base, near Marseille, where it made a perfect landing at 1pm GMT after a one-hour flight. It will now undergo two weeks of rigorous high speed ground tests by a crew of French aeronautical engineers.

The moment of takeoff was most poignant for residents of the airport dormitory town of Gonesse, where Air France flight AF4590 ploughed into the Hotelissimo hotel on 25 July last year. As the plane soared above their homes today, locals heard for the first time in six months the familiar roar of Concorde 500 metres overhead, but caught only a fleeting glimpse of its outline through the low clouds.

The hotel devastated by the crash which killed all 109 people on board and four on the ground - has still not been rebuilt, and the scar on the landscape where it once stood still serves as a bitter reminder to locals of their town's position under

The flight was organised by European Air and Defence Systems with the permission of the French Civil Aviation Authority.

It made the 600-mile journey with French pilot Edgard Chillaud, a co-pilot and an in-flight engineer the only three people on board.

An EADS spokesman said: "The takeoff from Paris was perfect, despite heavy fog, and the flight was smooth. It landed without problem."

At Istres, engineers will simulate fuel leaks on the underside of a wing, attaching tanks of coloured water to help them track the way fluid sluices from punctured kerosene reserves at high speed. Experts know the crash happened after a shard of metal on the runway from a DC-10 jet punctured a tyre, throwing up debris and piercing the fuel tank. But it is still not known why so much fuel escaped and what caused it to ignite so quickly.

BA and Air France plan to have fuel tanks on their 12 remaining Concordes - five owned by the French and seven by BA - lined with Kevlar, the material used in bullet-proof vests, to prevent rupture from debris.

It is hoped a BA Concorde will be able to undergo test flights within eight to 10 weeks, paving the way for British and French Concorde fleets to be back in passenger service by the spring.

lDozens of flights were delayed today when fires broke out after an explosion in a lavatory at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport.

Passengers were evacuated as smoke billowed into departure and arrivals halls. A spokeswoman said a police investigation was under way.

The airport was expected to return to normal today.

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