work

I work at a college security department in southwestern NH (USA). I was dispatching and caught it on CNN.com. You could have knocked me over with a grain of rice. I still get chills from that.

I was at work, got a call from my sister who told me the news. At that time, the news was pretty sketchy. I presumed it crashed into downtown Paris with tens or hundreds of casualties on the ground. Horrible day.

I was at home, sitting on the computer, reading posts on the non_av forum.

Didn't even know about it until I turned to the TV and saw "CNN Breaking News....etc"

From then on, sheer horror as I saw the death knell for one of the most beautiful aircraft slowly unfold. And then that awful crash video. Simply fascinating and frightening.

Hello [email protected]

Aloha 737-200!!  

I was literally on the way to the airport... I had just picked up my bags to head out the door when NBC came on with the breaking news screen and announced it had crashed. The mood at the airport was quite grim and it was about all people were talking about.

I was at the local pizza parlor with my son getting a pie after we played some golf when, as I was handing the cashier the money, my son taps me on the shoulder and says, "Dad the TV says there was a Concorde crash." I said to him, "Are you sure, the media probably just made a mistake," and almost under my breath, "Wouldn't be the first time." So, we got in the car and drove home and tuned to CNN on TV and we saw an aerial shot of the demolished restaurant. I was still unsure whether it was a Concorde or not, until about an hour or two later when they showed the photograph taken by the Hungarian (right?) spotters. At that point, my heart probably skipped a beat, chills ran down my spine, and my face turned pale. We would see a Concorde right over our backyard as frequently as 3 times a week up until that point, and I haven't heard that familiar sound since then. It was distinctive, and you knew it was a Concorde when you heard it. Even after we had seen so many times, it would still make my kids scream out, "CONCORDE!!!!" and prompt me to stop whatever I was doing and go out on the deck and watch that beautiful bird float over the yard for a minute or two. I really miss that, and how graceful it looked as it began its gentle turn toward JFK right over my house. I'm praying that one day we will see that plane fly over us again, it was always a welcome change from the boring procession of 767s and A3X0 products passing the house on a summer day.

I was on DL # 12 : ATL-LGW

I get the news when I was on the Convey Express and saw a man reading his newspaper and in the headline was the picture of the Concorde in flames with the legend : CONCORDE´S FINAL MOMENTS.
I didn´t know if it was BA´s or AF´s, I get well informed later.

It´s such a pity, and besides flying the Concorde was one of my dreams, I hope someday its service will enter again.

I was at home. I woke up in the morning, turned the tv on and than saw "Concorde crash". I couldn't beleive until I saw the video.
Bests

Mexico City as usual, at school. I happened to have access to the Net when it happened so I knew almost immediately when the Altavista search engine refreshed itself and came up with the breaking news. Too bad.

Eh...hello again Aloha.  

I'm sorta happy about the concorde geting back on it's wings. There hasn't been an incident with the airliner since July 25th anyway, has there?

Thanks again for your replies everyone.

[email protected]

I was on my way to school at 6.15am in the morning when I stole a peek at my dad holding the Straits Times newspaper in the lift which read:

CONCORDE CRASH KILLS 113.

I was at Home with my Parents, later my Cousin came because he want to present me his new Car. After we looking his new Car we went in our House and drink something, the TV was quite and a Quiz Show was running. Than we read in a newsflash on the screen that an Air France Plane crashed near CDG, i was shocked because i arrived 2 Weeks before from LAX with AF (744). Later we watching the News an than i heard that it was a Concorde. Than i heard that most of the Passengers are German and on the next Day i heard that one Stewardess was a very good friend of Minister Funke (Germanys Agrar Minister).

Bye

Patrick

Yeah, that stewardess Patrick/Sabena332 talks about actually starred in a feature about how great Concorde is which was aired a few weeks before the accident. Very good documentary on supersonic travel, a Franco-German co-production.
I knew one of the passengers - only very distantly, thank god - she used to advise my father on certain legal business matters... I only met her once or twice, so please don´t go out of your way to tell me how sorry you are.

Daniel

I was in Lebanon, near Jbeil on the water side when my father caled me to tell me what happend. He was in paris, at work and he saw that on yahoo
Curiously, it i was exactly at the same place when sr 111 sadly crashed

salim

I had finished an early shift at the BA Concorde Engineering operation. While getting ready to go and see a BBC Comedy show being recorded at the TV studios in London, my Mother rang me. She had just heard on the radio that a Concorde had crashed in Paris.
I must be honest and admit that my first thought was 'we've not done a CDG charter today, so it's not one of ours'. I turned on the TV, nothing yet, rang several work numbers, all busy-no surprise there.
As I had the tickets for the show, and didn't want to let my friends down, I still went out. By the time we were in the reception area at BBC Television centre, the TVs had footage of the wreck. It was a funny show, not that I laughed much.
Next day, I went in to find a hive of activity, doing extra checks on the fleet and preparing that day's BA001. It went without incident, not that the dumb-ass media reflected that.
I was also 'lucky' enough to be on duty three weeks later when the grounding happened, just minutes before the BA001 was due to go.
The day before, our manager had warned that the UK was coming under severe pressure from France to ground them. Of course, in that period all the old opponents of the aircraft came out of the woodwork.
A few days before the crash, some people at work had reckoned that the loss of an aircraft would lead to a grounding, even if it was a mid-air caused by an ATC foul-up.
Concorde's high profile is a double-edged sword.
IKARUS mentioned that structural problems may have caused a crash eventually anyway, well let me tell you that BA's NDT unit, which uses X-Rays and Ultrasound to check all parts of the airframe, spent 30% of their time doing just the 7 Concordes out of BA's entire fleet.
BA's aggressive determination to see the aircraft fly again is what saved it from certain retirement last year.
I note that most postings on this thread are still shocked by the tragic events of 25/7/00. If/when you find out what we know, you might be surprised.
But that's for the official, definitive report. The one on the net has been very superceded by developments in the investigation.

I was sitting in my moms chair at her desk in Samara Russia and I just happened to see the headlines of some internet news company. It didnt even hit me at first what I just read. Then I asked my mom about it and she said "Oh yeah I forgot to tell you."
That is so sad that it crashed.