The chilling final words of the pilot at the helm of a tragic crash have been revealed. The transcript of the Air France flight 4590 Concorde plane crash was disclosed from the cockpit voice recorder. Some 113 people died in the crash.
The iconic plane was heading from Roissy-Charles de Gaulle airport to New York when it ploughed into a hotel in the small town of Gonesse. It was just one minute 17 seconds after its pilot was told the plane was on fire.
According to a report by the Mirror, Captain Christian Marty's last words on July 25, 2000, were: "Too late... no time." The co-pilot was then heard to say: "Le Bourget, Le Bourget. Negative; we are trying Le Bourget [airport to land]." Sixteen seconds later the recording ends.
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On the Concorde flight, the Paris control tower had chillingly told the crew: "Concorde zero... 4590, you have flames. You have flames behind you.'" Then the chief navigator said: "Breakdown eng... Breakdown engine two.''
"Cut engine two,'' he said, four seconds later. The aircraft tried to gain speed for an emergency landing before Mr Marty was heard saying his final words.
The crew had lost all power in one engine and could neither accelerate nor gain altitude and desperately tried to reach Le Bourget airport to save lives. The crash prompted Air France to ground its remaining Concorde planes immediately and British Airways, the only other airline with the jets, grounded theirs three weeks later too.
French investigators confirmed that a burst tyre set off the tragic chain of events which brought the plane down, killing all those on board and another four people on the ground. The investigation board said: "The accident shows that the destruction of a tyre, an event that we cannot say will not recur, had catastrophic consequences in a short period of time, preventing the crew from rectifying the situation. The crew had no way of knowing about the nature of the fire nor any means of fighting it."
There was also a small metal strip, probably from another aeroplane, found on the runway. The report said that the 40cm piece of metal almost certainly slashed the Concorde's tyre, sending large chunks of rubber hurtling at tremendous speed into the plane's fuel tanks.
The report says: "Shortly before rotation [take-off speed], the front right tyre of the left undercarriage became damaged and tyre fragments were projected against the fuselage. At least one fuel tank was ruptured in one or more places, resulting in a substantial fuel leak.
"The leaking fuel caught light and a very violent fire ensued throughout the duration of the flight. Engine problems occurred in engine number 2 and, briefly, in engine number 1. The aircraft flew for approximately one minute."
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