13. The only fatal accident in the history of Concorde, unnoticed runway debris resulted in the deaths all those aboard Air France Flight 4590
Air France Flight 4590 was a supersonic Concorde passenger-airline, traveling from Paris to New York City on July 25, 2000, carrying 100 passengers and 9 crew. Five minutes prior to Flight 4590 a Continental Airlines DC-10 departed from the same runway, unintentionally dropping a tiny scrap of titanium alloy. This minute debris, measuring just 435 millimeters in length and 34 millimeters wide, cut one of the Concorde’s tires during takeoff sending a larger chunk of debris – approximately 4.5 kilograms in mass – hurtling into the underside of the aircraft’s wing at a speed of 310 miles per hour.
With fuel leaking from the bottom of the wing, an electrical current ignited the exposed engines. Engines 1 and 2 caught fire and were shut down by the captain’s orders, but the third and fourth engines were insufficient to maintain thrust. Despite efforts to control the inevitable fall, the aircraft stalled and crashed at speed into the Hôtelissimo Les Relais Bleus Hotel, adjacent to the airport. All 109 people aboard, as well as four on the ground, were killed by the incident. A subsequent investigation identified 70 tire-related incidents over the 27-year history of Concorde, of which at least 7 were potentially catastrophic due to the design of the aircraft.