From: <lafrance@xxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Tuesday, July 20, 2004 5:06 PM Here is my best effort at translation: Concorde: The material of the sheet at the beginning of the crash blamed. CERGY, 20 July 2004 (AFP) The material of the sheet from the DC10 over which the Concorde rolled before crashing in July 2000, of titanium in replacement for the original alloy, had a "direct influence" in the accident, it was made known Tuesday before the court of Pontoise (Val d'Oise). "The fact that the sheet from the DC10 was of a different metallic material, titanium, from the original was a direct influence in the crash of the Concorde", according to the same source. Before the court, some expert witnesses working on the materials used in the tires of the Concorde have demonstrated that the original alloy for this sheet "would not cut the tires", unlike titanium. The Office of Accident Investigations had concluded in July 2001 that the ignition of the fuel tanks, the origin of the accident to the plane, was caused by the projection of pieces of tires produced by a metal sheet which came from a DC-10 of the Ameircan compnay Continental Airlines. Gerry http://www.pbase.com/gfoley9999/ http://foley.ultinet.net/~gerry/aerial/aerial.html http://home.columbus.rr.com/gfoley http://www.fortunecity.com/victorian/pollock/263/egypt/egypt.html