Lessons from Concorde Air France flight 4590

In recent morning meeting at offshore NC3, I volunteered to do a safety sharing: Lessons from Concorde Air France flight 4590

Anyone remember the Concorde? 

Back when I was growing up, it was heralded as the technological marvel of the decade. Able to fly at cruising speed of Mach 2 - twice the speed of sound - over 2,100 km/h (for reference, the commercial Boeing 737-800 runs ~800 km/h), many of us grew fond of this airplane, wishfully thinking we could someday board this futuristic aircraft. 

Unfortunately, that might never materialize, as Concorde ceased operations in 2003. 

Besides, each one-way flight cost about ~US$9,000 😅

One of the major incidents that triggered the Concorde to close shop was an incident that happened in July 2000 - Air France flight 4590, in the famous photograph of the fiery takeoff 🔥. Though it may look like a scene from a science fiction moving of a spaceship turning on its afterburners, it was in fact a major fire incident, as the plane burst in flames due to a rupture in the fuel tank just as it was taking off. The pilot lost control, and crashed to a hotel nearby, instantly killing all 109 passengers onboard, and four more on the ground. 

What happened? 

The biggest evidence was a small titanium strip on the runway - 43cm long, and a mere 1.4mm thick: thinner than a coin. 

Upon investigation, it was found that this piece didn't belong to the Concorde. It belonged to another plane, Continental Airlines flight DC-10, which took off 5 minutes before that, and had this piece broke off the plane during takeoff, due to a non-standard repair and poor workmanship by the mechanic. It didn't affect flight DC-10, but it did affect the flight after: Concorde Flight 4590. 

When the Concorde was taking off at a speed of 300 km/hr running over that titanium strip, the metal strip tore through the plane's tyre, sending a large chunk of tyre debris (4.5 kgs) into the fuel tank on the underside of the left wing at an estimated speed of 140 m/s (500 km/h) - basically, hitting the fuel tank the speed of a missile, causing it to rupture and burst into flames.

What can we learn from this? 

1. Poor maintenance workmanship & QC can have dire consequences. The mechanic for Continental Airlines was charged with manslaughter for his negligence.

2. When it comes to safety in a shared workspace, sometimes our mistakes might cause harm to OTHERS, even though we're "fine". 

3. Importance of Housekeeping. This entire incident, the deaths of 113 people, happened because of a little piece of metal on a runway!

4. All it takes is one disaster to kill your business - in the entire 30+ years history of Concorde's service life, this was the one and only fatal accident. Yet it resulted in flight suspension for a year. By the time it resumed operations in November 2001 - post 9-11 - there was a general phobia for flying, dramatically affecting ticket sales, eventually made the Concorde economically unsustainable and ceased in 2003.