Attorney Says Ruling "Protects Only The Interests Of France"

An attorney for Continental Airlines says the airline has appealed the ruling by the French court of Pontoise which found it criminally liable in the 2000 crash of a Concorde SST on departure from Charles de Gaulle airport.

Olivier Metzner declared the intention to appeal against a ruling that he said "Protects only the interests of France" immediately after the conviction was announced on December 6th, 2010. The court found that Continental was entirely responsible for the accident. A Continental flight had departed just before the Concorde, and the court determined that it lost a metal part which caused the explosion of one wheel on the Air France jet, setting in motion a chain of events which caused the accident.

The judge found that Continental was "criminally responsible for the crash", and guilty of manslaughter and involuntary lesions. He said the airline should pay $266,000 in compensation to the families of the accident's victims, and $1.3 million in compensation to Air France.

FMI: www.continental.com