started in the cargo hold but no one knew how it could have spread. these types of compartments are designed to contain a fire. so why didn t the liner contain the fire? the investigators check records to see what was being transported in the hold. they find mail, three tires on their way to another valujet plane, and then something suspicious. there were oxygen generators in there. and they found evidence that some of the generators had been discharged. that suddenly would explain why the containment liner had not worked. inside the cargo hold, the charred remains of nine activated canisters are recovered. oxygen generators use a chemical process to produce oxygen in the event passengers need it during a decompression. according to the ntsb, they were improperly secured for shipping. it turned out it was apparently very shoddy workmanship. but what
as they start their take-off roll, the airplane is going right down the runway. the tower tells the pilots you have got fire behind the aircraft. there is a cockpit warning indication that there is believed to be a fire in the number two engine. but once the plane reaches a critical speed, it cannot stop. the pilot s best hope is to get airborne so they can deal with the problem. typically for a pilot, whenever you have a problem and you are committed to flight, which this crew was, they want to climb to what they call a safe altitude before they start taking corrective action. but the concord s ability to fly has been compromised by the fire. it started to lose directional control. he is heavy, low, and slow. that is a very critical point for a pilot. a minute after take-off, the number two engine fails. the pilots begin to go through the engine fire procedure. in the cockpit they have begun to get warnings.
mission, but a recovery mission. puzzled by the tragedy, investigators are eager to retrieve the wreckage. we knew if we found the source of that in-flight fire and the fuel that was feeding that in-flight fire that we would get to the safety issues that we needed to identify. but the answers to questions about how it started and what burned are scattered on the ocean floor. the wreckage was some 185 or 190 feet below the surface of the ocean and spread out. we didn t know exactly where it was or exactly what we were faced with, trying to recover it. the first challenge is to find the black boxes. i managed to go in and recover the two black boxes. it was a setback, because the fire, in fact, has burned both of the flight data recorder and voice recorder about six minutes before the aircraft had hit the water. ç it was pretty disappointing. with no information about the
a flight attendant empties a fire extinguisher, trying to control the smoke, but they can t find the source of the fire. when they open the lavatory door, they see smoke but no open flame. that was behind the walls in an inaccessible areas. a fire behind the wall is thç worst-case scenario. it s almost impossible to put out or contain. a disaster is in progress. the smoke was clearing and then all of a sudden i lost all my electric power. that s when the crew realized they had a life-threatening event on their hands. they needed a crew on the ground as soon as they could get there. mayday. we re going down. moments later, dense smoke begins to come through the cabin walls. roger. do you have time to give me the nature of the emergency? we have a fire in the wash back wash room and filling up with smoke right now. filled the cabin very quickly.
even though it fp n t breach the fuel tank, it sent chicago waves that overpressured the tank. the shock wave created an overpressure system. basically expanding in the tank, blows it from the inside out, creating a hole. captured on camera by and into the air where it vaporizes and ignites.ç once the fire gets going, there was no way to stop it. as the roll picked up in magnitude, their ability to maintain level flight was degraded and the nose started down. ten years after the crash, continental airlines and two of its employees go on trial in paris for involuntary manslaughter n french law, it is standard for a criminal investigation to be opened after a plane crash. but it s highly unusual for an airline to face criminal charges. during the trial, continental says air france knew of deficiencies in concorde s fuel tanks and wheels.