On July 25th, 2000, Concorde suffers its worst nightmare. Minutes after take off, an Air France flight crashes into a hotel near Charles de Gaulle airport, killing all passengers and crew. It’s now up to the team of engineers to study the aftermath and piece together the final moments of the aircraft. They hope to explain the cause to the world and restore faith in supersonic flight.

Teamistry

[email protected] (Nastaran Tavakoli-Far, Pedro Mendes, Jonathan Glancey, Mike Hall, Michel Polacco, Katie John, John Britton, Yves Gourinat, Ricky Bastin)

Part 5: Rising from the Ashes

JAN 23, 202337 MIN
Teamistry

Part 5: Rising from the Ashes

JAN 23, 202337 MIN

Description

In the late afternoon of July 25th, 2000, a Concorde crashed into a hotel near Charles de Gaulle airport. Air France flight 4590 was carrying 100 passengers, most of them tourists from Germany, along with a crew of nine. All perished, including four people on the ground. The incident shocked the globe, and halted Air France Concorde operations indefinitely. On this episode of Teamistry, host Nastaran Tavakoli-Far and lead producer Pedro Mendes sit down with the team of engineers who played a leading role in piecing together the evidence from the crash site, hoping to learn exactly what went wrong. We gain insights through cockpit recordings and an interview with a friend of the pilot who tells the story of the crash – and its aftermath – truthfully and respectfully. We also address a common myth that the crash spelled the end of Concorde.

Guests in this episode:

  • Jonathan Glancey, author of 'Concorde: The Rise and Fall of the Supersonic Airliner'
  • Michel Polacco, French aviation reporter, and author of a book on the Concorde in French
  • Mike Hall, Chief Engineer for Concorde Support Operations
  • Katie John, Editor of Mach 2 magazine
  • John Britton, Chief Engineer of the British Concorde fleet
  • Dudley Collard, member of the Aerodynamics Design team at Concorde
  • Yves Gourinat, former Airbus employee during Concorde’s last decade, and currently an Aviation professor at the University of Toulouse.
  • Ricky Bastin, Technical Liaison Engineer at Concorde.

For more on this episode, visit: https://www.atlassian.com/blog/podcast/teamistry/season/season-4/rising-from-the-ashes.