Crash site of an Air France Concorde in Gonesse, France, July 2000
/ AP photo
HOUSTON (AP) — Continental Airlines will appeal a French court's verdict that found the carrier and a mechanic guilty of manslaughter in the 2000 crash of an Air France Concorde outside Paris that killed 113 people.
Continental says the carrier strongly disagreed with the "absurd finding."
The court Monday ruled that Continental must pay a $265,000 fine and Houston-based mechanic John Taylor must pay $2,650. Taylor was also handed a 15-month suspended prison sentence. All other defendants, including Taylor's now-retired supervisor Stanley Ford, were acquitted.
Taylor, who also plans to appeal, told The Associated Press that "I've been nothing but wronged since this started."
The presiding judge confirmed the long-held belief of investigators that debris dropped by a Continental DC-10 onto the runway at Charles de Gaulle Airport damaged the Air France jet on takeoff.
Copyright 2010 The Associated Press.
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