The French legal system is crazy

Actually, that's not just so in what you call the "French legal system" but in all legal systems which are based on Roma law.

The French Bureau of Investigations and Analysis (BEA) concluded in 2004 that the crash was caused by a titanium strip that fell from the Continental Airlines flight and pierced the Concorde's tire.
So, you certainly might criticise that the trial started a) a decade after the fatal accident and b) six years after the the investigations ended.

But to call laws 'crazy' which seek to punish those who are responsible for a the death of 113 people ... well, perhaps you think so because no US-citizen was among them?

But the judges will decide within the four months of the trial who should be held criminally responsible for the crash.

Mere assumption based on ignorance.

No, don't tell me why it's crazy, you have proved in the past that your views on the world are, well, uninformed, to say the least..

I call it crazy as there are always trades off in the design of any aircraft between such factors as safety and performed and that go even more for, at the time of design, a cutting edge craft such as the Concord.

The aircraft still had flown for decades with a perfect safety record and a court of lay persons are going to second guess decades after the fact if not providing better protection to the fuel tanks in the design raised to the level of manslaughter!

If this nonsense becomes common planes will be so over design that they will not be able to leave the ground at all. With a wonderful ripple effect on everything else we used in daily life.

Playing guessing games after the fact is bad enough when all we are talking about is money.

Well, I suppose you've read the Bureau of Investigations and Analysis' report. And certainly you've noticed as well: the court will take the time of four months to decide about the criminal responsibility.

If you call that crazy ... what Francis said ...and I would call you aditionally a baudruche.

Second, my friends the very government going after the engineers decades after the fact is the same government that had taken part in the international airworthy certification program.

The Concorde was given this certification after both the plane and it plans were reviewed by experts and you still are going to go after the design engineers decades later!!!!!!!!!

Yes indeed I call it crazy to even think about placing charges let alone doing so for a design that had flown with a perfect safety record for decades and who design was approved by that same government.

My friend Wlater tell me also, who in their right mind do you think would become an aircraft design engineer knowing that after following all the rules many decades later you could find yourself in court with your freedom at risk over design decisions lost in the misty of time.

No more new aircraft designs and we will be flying the same types that exist now to the end of time.

Look at the title of this thread, then remind yourself of who the author is.

This is a serious and obvious case of the pot calling the kettle black.

Today, the court in Pontoise found Continental Airlines and a mechanic at the airline guilty of involuntary manslaughter for their role in the 2000 Concorde crash that grounded the supersonic airliner for good.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/dec/06/concorde-crash-paris-airline-mechanic

Kenneth Quinn, an aviation lawyer and previously the chief counsel for the US Federal Aviation Authority, speaking before the verdict, said: "Criminal trials are the wrong response to accidents, because they are counterproductive when it comes to advancing safety and preventing accidents in the first place.

"The risk of facing a prosecutor some day chills voluntary disclosures and co-operation – it keeps people from coming forward to find, flag and fix safety issues, which hurts everyone."

Quinn, a partner at Washington-based lawyers Pillsbury: "Regardless of the trial's outcome, the fact it is merely taking place already takes us down a slippery slope to more 'criminalised' crash probes worldwide.

"Safety experts and regulators should lead investigations – not prosecutors – or else governments risk rolling back decades of progress by stifling safety cultures encouraging aviation professionals to come forward before it's too late."