Long wait for Concorde answers

Passengers disembark from Concorde in Newfoundland after another scare

French investigators say it could take more than a year to determine the cause of the Concorde crash which killed 113 people.

But they say they have established that nothing was wrong with the supersonic plane before it took off from Charles de Gaulle Airport last Tuesday.

The inquiry into the causes of the crash is due to continue in Paris on Tuesday.

The investigators say they are almost certain that:

• One or more of the Concorde's tyres burst
  
• There had been an intense fire
  
• The aircraft had problems with its landing gear

As yet, they say they cannot tell how these incidents are linked.

Earlier, the investigators confirmed that a leak from a fuel tank - and not a failure of one of the engines - led to the fire which ravaged the plane.

Although their meetings have so far been conducted behind closed doors, our correspondent James Coomerasamy says it is thought the experts are looking at measures designed to prevent Concorde's tyres from bursting.

Weekend scares

Sunday evening - "Fuel-like smell" prompts New York-bound flight to divert to Newfoundland

Sunday morning - Concorde grounded at Heathrow due to refuelling problems

Saturday evening - loud bang heard as flight lands at Heathrow

Air France's five remaining Concordes are still grounded pending a series of safety recommendations being drawn up at a separate meeting by British and French aviation experts.

The British Airways Concordes are still flying, though BA is monitoring the situation on a daily basis.

Weekend alerts

Nervousness over the safety of the aircraft led to three separate alerts on BA Concorde flights over the weekend.

On Sunday evening, BA Concorde Flight 003 bound for New York was diverted to Gander in Newfoundland in Canada after passengers reported a smell of fuel at the back of the cabin.

Earlier on the same day, 51 passengers on the 1030 BST flight from Heathrow to New York were transferred to a standby aircraft because of a refuelling problem, which BA described as "minor".

It also emerged that late on Saturday, a BA Concorde flight from New York was met by emergency services on the ground at Heathrow, after the pilot was alerted to a large bang inside one of the engines.

A mixture of fuel and air in the engine was blamed for the noise, which the airline said was similar to a car engine backfiring and would not have been heard by the passengers.

BA described the action taken for all three of its troubled Concordes as "routine safety procedure", but says it has found no evidence of a fuel leak on Flight 003.

It said the plane, which left London's Heathrow airport at 1900 BST, had landed at Gander at about 2200 BST without incident.

A BA spokeswoman told BBC News Online that the airline was in constant contact with the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and its French counterpart and was "assessing the situation very closely on a daily basis".