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should conorde still be grounded?

Should Concorde still be grounded? Afterall it was only a freak accident, i mean how often would u find a piece of metal on the runway? And even if you do they are sure to follow the reccomendations made by the National Transportation Safety Board. All thoughts are welcome and anyone know why it is grounded, then add that too please

Public Comments

1. yes
2. nope
3. they didnt desrve to be grounded for one accident but theres more to it than that. I dont think they were making much profit to start with (if any at all), the planes needed updating which is expensive and they were stupidly quick but cant carry as many passangers as other planes. personally i would like to see a come back in the way of a new, bigger and faster plane
4. The Concorde never earned a single penney in its entire existence. Nobody can afford to operate it.
5. The planes were given airworthy certificates after modifications to the undercarriage and fuel tanks to prevent that type of accident recurring. In 2003, EADS /Airbus decided to stop supporting the plane with spares, this rendered it un-flyable. Read the links for the background to this.
6. they shouldnt be grounded for one accident. However they are quite old now, as time goes by for an aircraft they develop small imperfections in the components due to the enormous stress they endure. This is why when an aircraft gets to a certain age it has to be grounded as it would cost too much to replace all the parts
7. The plane was teetering on being retired as it was due to operating cost. The accident simply pushed it over the edge. The plane was doomed due to noise regulations and small passenger capacity.
8. The accident did no permanently ground the Concorde, it was just the last nail in the coffin. The Concorde was not profitable to operate. I carried relatively few passengers and used something like 5 times as much fuel as a similar capacity sub sonic aircraft. The only things keeping it in service the last couple of years was stubbornness and a perfect safety record. One fiery crash later, and even the stubborn had to admit it wasn't worth the cost to fly any more.
9. I would not want to fly in it now.
10. @Stephen K : don't talk about someting you don't know . Air France and British Airways won money with concorde. 5 fingers ! Ignorants, don't you know that Air France won money with concorde in the past ?
11. The real reason is because how expensive it was to operate.
12. not really, but since it was such a financial black whole for BA and AF, they took the oppurtunity of the crash to get rid of it.
13. no... but in order to fly, they need a serious 21st century upgrade
14. The Concorde should not be grounded. That incident of Air France 4590 was only a freak accident. It was because of a titanium strip from a Continental Airlines DC-10 (flight 55) that took of before the AF Concorde. It doesn't mean that just one accident will already ground the whole production and, it was one of the most reliable and obviously the fastest way to fly.
15. Concorde was not grounded because of the accident the reason Concorde was pulled out of service was because France wouldn't make any new replacement parts and there was only like 3-6 airports in the world that was allowed to land Concorde made and unfortunately it wasn't looking good from their so they closed the Concorde programme
16. Concorde is not grounded as an effect of the accident, the surviving airplane were returned to service fot a while after modification to prevent the same kind of mishaps, before being retired. It was retired because spares were getting scarce, maintenance was very expensive, fuel cost was getting too high, and the airframe were getting worn out. Concorde was an engineering marvel, but a financial failure.
17. It's not "grounded"---it was retired. It was returned to service after the accident, then retired.
18. Concorde is no longer able to fly, and the question as to whether it should have stopped flying is now moot. None of the surviving aircraft are now airworthy and there is no service backup or spares for these planes whoose technology is essentially from the early 1960's in terms of core design. Some elements, especially the engines, have their basic design date from the early 1950's. I assume you are talking about the US NTSB: there are air safety accreditaion bodies within Europe, and it is their say that determines the right of an aircraft (a particular type or individual unit) to fly. Their right to investigate the aircraft that left the metal parts on the runway is still valid though, and they were used as a political pawn to limit the use of Concorde when it first flew. Concordes flying for BA did make a profit for a time, as did the AF planes, though their success was slightly less financially. Taken as a whole, Concorde was a financial failure, but it was more due to American interference (owing to their failure to produce an SST) that doomed Concorde before it ever flew commercially. Braniff and Singapore did lease Concordes briefly, though the Braniff venture was a failure owing to them having the same restrictions on operations placed on the aircraft that had initially doomed the project. Concorde can be considered to have been a success in terms of prestige and as a technical marvel for it's time, despite whatever misgivings one might have about it's operating economics and other factors. I, for one, wish that I had been able to fly on one. I have been lucky to have been in several preserved examples, but I think that it will never fly again. I also rather doubt, given long term economic forcasts, that there will be a market for such an aircraft again. More is the pity.
19. I'd say no, but yes. The reason that Concorde is grounded today is because replacement parts were no longer being made. Also, Concorde was only going to be able to fly to certain destinations - that are wholly (or mostly) over sea - because of 'Sonic Boom'. As well as the above, Concorde was very expensive to maintain and nearing the end of its service, BA couldn't fill the seats (the flights before the final flights, of course!) But, yes, I believe Concorde's end of service was premature - it was a beautiful bird!
20. No, Its bloody rediculous its grounded. Look how many boeings crash, do they ground every 737, 747,etc? no I dont think so. Just because there was only one Concorde although BA had around 7, and air france around 6, look at the major safety additions that BA made to their fleet and fully overhauled and refitted. Ucouldnt find a better maintained aircraft. BA kept at least one aircraft for spares. As far as one person mentioned that the aircraft was becomming worn out, where infact the aircraft was still in pretty good condition as there wasnt too many hours flown on all their fleet as they rotated the use of each aircraft, infact they still r pretty new according to the documentary just a few weeks ago on Discovery channel. Bring back Concorde, shes ok, I would fly in her in a round the world flight stopping at every airport possible, thats how much I trust the old girl.