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Wednesday, 26 July, 2000, 17:09 GMT 18:09 UK
Concorde pilot 'saved our village'
Damage on the ground could have been far worse
As investigators attempt to determine the cause of the Concorde crash outside Paris, it already looks as though the disaster could have been much worse had it not been for the pilot, Christian Marty.
While the Concorde itself was totally destroyed, damage on the ground was limited to an annexe in the grounds of a hotel, and only four lives were lost among people on the ground.
"That pilot saved this village, there is no doubt about that," said Christine Turpin, the manager of a petrol station and shop about 100 metres from the crash site. Struggling Ms Turpin had been driving near the airport as the doomed flight took off, and noticed trouble as soon as the Concorde came into view.
"As I was driving towards the garage I saw it start to twist and turn." Ms Turpin suggested that the pilot had made an effort to steer the plane towards a relatively safe landing site before the heavily-laden plane went out of control completely.
"He saved the lives of the people of Gonesse. Otherwise it would have been a worse catastrophe." Too late to abort? Aviation experts have pointed out the difficulties of aborting a take-off when an aircraft is laden with fuel.
Samir Hossein, a local student, described how the plane appeared to be struggling to gain altitude. "The pilot tried to yank it up, but it was too late," he said. Transatlantic surfer Mr Marty, 54, had flown his first plane in 1969, just as the first Concordes were being built - but it was only a year ago that he qualified as a Concorde pilot.
Not content with transatlantic flights, Mr Marty also became the first Frenchman to windsurf across the Atlantic ocean. Described by a friend as "a sportsman at heart", Mr Marty was also a keen mountain biker. "During stopovers, he would take his bike with him and then we would see him leaving to climb mountains," fellow pilot Eric Derivry told Reuters news agency.
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