Where Were You When Concorde Crashed?

[email protected] · Tue Jun 26, 2001 11:33 pm

I'm asking this question, though there is a risk it has been discussed before;
Where were you, and what were you doing when you found out about the Concorde crash, July,25th,2000?

Me; I was in England, newcastle in the kitchen of the house I lived in, when my sister, who was watcing the telly, told me to come quick, "Concorde has crashed!". I walked calmly into the living room and saw a wreck of a plane on the ground and said: " No that's not concorde, it's probably another airliner." I thought to myself, Concorde can't crash.

I waited for the news reporter to identify the wreck as a boeing or airbus to proove my sister wrong, but suddenly the word Concorde was mentioned. I changed the chanel, and again there was a picture of a wreck with the text "Concorde disaster" under it.

I couldn't believe it, and it took days/weeks to get over the fact that concorde had actually gone down, killing 113 people.

I will never forget that day. Crying

Passengers, crew and people on the ground who were killed, RIP.

[email protected]

TCA256 · Tue Jun 26, 2001 11:38 pm

curious question....

I was half-sleeping in my hotel's room in Turkey when
I have been awaken by BBC TV broadcasting a
breaking report about the crash...I thought the crew
suffered from a stall situation and the incapacity to
control the plane, i was far to know a part of the tyre
crushed the fuel tanker !!!

cheers,

sebolino · Tue Jun 26, 2001 11:40 pm

I was in Paris for my job, I just came this day by plane to CDG from SXB.
I felt kind of lucky.

cfalk · Tue Jun 26, 2001 11:54 pm

I was in India. a few days earlier (or later - I forget) an Alliance Air 737 crashed in India as well. Not a good month for aviation.

Charles

mls515 · Tue Jun 26, 2001 11:58 pm

I was at work in the computer lab, and right after seeing the topic "Concorde Crash" show up on this forum the fire alarm went off in the building. Strange day.

gkirk · Wed Jun 27, 2001 12:00 am

At home. Earlier though I had flown over Paris in a Spanair md83 from PMI-NCL.

vincent32 · Wed Jun 27, 2001 12:03 am

I was on vacation in Victoria, BC-Canada. I walked into my hotel room and turned on the TV to see a plane shooting out flames and my jaw dropped when I realized what plane it was. Sad day, hopefully we'll see them fly again though.

SPRINGBOK · Wed Jun 27, 2001 12:05 am

I was driving my car and caravan along the motorway past Plymouth, UK on the way to catch the ferry for a 24hr crossing to Bilbao for 4 weeks on the costa del sol.
It was a hurrendous and shocking news report, i shall never forget that day!

OH-LZA · Wed Jun 27, 2001 12:06 am

At home in Helsinki, Finland, surfing the Internet.

Alexander

hustler · Wed Jun 27, 2001 12:08 am

I was at school. I got the news in my pager. I quickly got out of class and went to the Library to check the news at cnn.com.

It was terrible. I got butterflies in my stomach.

...Hustler.

MD-11 forever · Wed Jun 27, 2001 12:23 am

I was in Toulouse, just returning from a visit to the space museum there when the taxi driver told me about the terrible news......

SInGAPORE_AIR · Wed Jun 27, 2001 12:26 am

In the living room, about to eat a chip, watching BBC News 24.

airsicknessbag · Wed Jun 27, 2001 12:36 am

I was at University, surfing the internet (I didn´t get the news from this site, though).
BTW: This is the original very first thread about the crash, initiated 331 minutes after it happened:

https://www.airliners.net/discussions/general_aviation/read.main/260923/

Daniel Smile

MEA-707 · Wed Jun 27, 2001 1:25 am

I was in Portugal that week for a business meeting later that week, and after sunbathing and swimming tuesday and sleeping unaware of anything in my TV-less hotel, I went to Faro the day after the crash by train to spot at the airport and try to find a Constellation wreck. Ironically, "Faro" (once a Martinair DC-10 crashed there) already was a black word for any Dutch spotter. On Faro trainstation, I saw the photo of the burning Concorde on a Portuguese newspaper in a newsstand, with in Portuguese '114 muerto a ecrashanda Concorde' or something. My heart stood still and I immediately knew it must have been an Air France machine. I hope I don't insult any AF personnel now. I rushed to newsshops with English papers and bought some.

Guest · Wed Jun 27, 2001 1:45 am

I was on Royal Caribbean's Grandeur of the Seas watching it on tv in my cabin.

lmml 14/32 · Wed Jun 27, 2001 1:45 am

I was in a holiday villa in the pool when my friend called me urgently to the TV room. It was a hot day, but I suddenly found myself shivering.

artsyman · Wed Jun 27, 2001 1:51 am

I was in a hotel in Denver, I had just gone to see Sting play at Red Rocks. Anyways, my girlfriend and I were leaving the hotel in the morning and it was on the front page of the newspaper in the lobby. Needless to say I didnt feel much like flying, so we drove from Denver to Houston that day

Jer

duke · Wed Jun 27, 2001 1:52 am

I was in France at the time, taking a course in Tours, which is maybe 100 or 150 kilometers away from Paris. At the moment of the crash, I was probably at my course's institute (or AWOL from it). I heard about the crash in a day or two.
But Thomas, any aircraft can crash. Accept that as a fact of life. Concorde is maybe not as solid as people think. A spotter at CDG told me days later that he had seen emegrency vehicles around one Concorde, but that no accident was reported after.

456 · Wed Jun 27, 2001 1:58 am

I was at Las Vegas, on a holiday from the Netherlands to californie.
When i was on the way back to Holland, i heard at LAX (2 weeks later) that some planes from alaska airlines were not allowed to fly due to technical problems, because one of them was crashed.

Luckily i flew KLM Big grin

Hahaha...

Jkat · Wed Jun 27, 2001 2:55 am

I was in Amsterdam going to my soccer game (I was in a youth tournament) I picked up a dutch newspaper on our bus and saw it. We had left Paris the day before and drove through Gonesse at least 4 times during the week we were there.

Jkat · Wed Jun 27, 2001 12:47 pm

any word when they'll be back in the air?

Teej13 · Wed Jun 27, 2001 1:29 pm

At work in Dublin, when I got an email from a friend back home in Canada of all places, saying it was on T.V.. Then I tuned onto the web and went straight here!

EjFN · Wed Jun 27, 2001 1:35 pm

I wasn't into that plane for sure
Poor people
Lets keep ourselves praying for them

EIPremier · Wed Jun 27, 2001 1:39 pm

I was at a music camp in Carmel Valley, CA. The reason I make mention of this is because I didn't find out about the crash until I returned home...five days after the accident!

In fact, I think I made mention of the Concorde's perfect safety record during a conversation with someone at the camp. Obviously, we had no way of knowing what was going on in the rest of the world.

Early Air · Wed Jun 27, 2001 1:57 pm

I was out and when I arrived home my father informed me that a concored had crashed. I was shocked. I could not believe him, I read the newspaper article and then went online to gather more information.

Rgds,
Early Air

hkgspotter1 · Wed Jun 27, 2001 2:13 pm

I too was in Las Vegas, I just came from the Airliners Convention 2000 in Phoenix. This was the first thing I heard, my first morning in Vegas.

Superfly · Wed Jun 27, 2001 2:14 pm

I was on a lunch break from work downtown San Francisco when I found out.
A girl who I approached that I thaught was kind of hot told me all about it. We had lunch togther and talked about planes.
Well I haven't seen her nor the Concorde sense. Sad

ILOVEA340 · Wed Jun 27, 2001 2:16 pm

I feel for you man...

I was in Richmond Virginia on vacation and was watching the local evening news.

Guest · Wed Jun 27, 2001 2:22 pm

I was in Koh Samui, and saw on the news at the hotel, after we went kayaking that day.

Guest · Wed Jun 27, 2001 2:54 pm

I was at the public library in Pierre checking my email when I noticed the headline on the MSN page. I had to go back to work soon after and didn't get to see the article until later that evening.

May F-BTSC and her pax and crew rest in peace.

Corey777

Sukhoi · Wed Jun 27, 2001 3:28 pm

I was at the Farnborough airshow.

Regards

Paul

Pacific · Wed Jun 27, 2001 9:05 pm

I was in Manila.. My uncle subscribes to the "Philippine Star" so when I picked it up and saw it, I just couldn't believe it!

Pacific

Reggaebird · Wed Jun 27, 2001 9:18 pm

Hi there,

I was shagging in a barn down in lovely Windhoek, Namibia when suddenly.........

Just kidding...I was sitting at my desk at work when a good friend called to ask me if I had heard that a plane had crashed. When I asked what airline, she said Air France. It wasn't until I clicked onto CNN.com that I realized it was a Concorde.

Thornton

tim · Wed Jun 27, 2001 9:51 pm

I was asleep down here in Australia. Woke up and heard it on the news on the radio. Thought I was dreaming.

tim

Hole_Courtney · Wed Jun 27, 2001 10:11 pm

I was in Arlington Virginia visiting Washington D.C. when my mother came into the room and said that the concorde had crashed. I thought it was b.s. because she always says planes crash, then I turned on the t.v. on CNN and saw that, indeed there had been a concorde crash. Terribly sad day.

live forever and stay beautiful,
hole_courtney

DELL_dude · Wed Jun 27, 2001 10:52 pm

I was online... I heard about it first from FOX NEWS!

B-HOP · Wed Jun 27, 2001 10:59 pm

I woke up in the morning in Hong Kong, and suddenly, the morning newsreporter said the Concorde crash, I was shocked and rush to buy a paper

VgnAtl747 · Wed Jun 27, 2001 11:03 pm

I was in england- it was the day before we came back to the US. My mom flies bad anyway- the Concorde crash lass than 12hrs before we flew back didn't halp any. Then, in flight, they handed out newspapers with nice pictures of the burning concorde on the front. That was really nice of them.

docpepz · Thu Jun 28, 2001 12:45 am

The second it crashed, it was probably 3am in Singapore and I was most certainly asleep. The local English paper, The Straits Times, ran a story about some Japanese economy slowdown or something (I don't know why that's even news, they haven't had much of an economy for 10 years, right?) on their front page. That is, for the first few copies that were printed at 4am, and those were the copies I happened to get delilvered to my home. However, the news room must have got the news and rushed all their reporters down, half-asleep, and there was a second edition that had "Concorde crashes, killing 113" on the front page. I noticed people at the bus stop outside my school carrying copies of those papers.

I realised the news when I woke up that morning and switched on the radio. It was 7am when I switched it on and all 10 English stations and 5 Chinese stations had it on the first thing on the news, and I was like, SHOCKED.

Vgn Atl 747, cool point you made. I wonder how passengers on SQ 6 the days after SQ 6 crashed on Oct 31 felt when they were handed The Straits Times on board, with nasty pictures of the jumbo torn to bits. I would have had been really nervous. Or did SQ remove The Straits Times from their services for the next couple of days after the crash(I highly doubt they did) Imagine how the stewardesses would have felt handing out those papers to the passengers.......

AirT85 · Thu Jun 28, 2001 12:47 am

I was in PIttsburgh n my grandma's house. I was downstairs getting ready to go out when she called me upstairs and told me to run. went into the backroom and looked at the TV. it was CNN covering a Concorde crash, we were both stunned beyond belief. I was also at her house when TWA800 wnent down. I remember we were cleaning up from dinner when it flashed across the tv screen, that a plane had crashed then they identified it.. Very emotional due to the fact some of those passengers were form right down the road :*( My grandma's nephews work with some medical thing on Long Island and actually retrieved bodies and stuff fomr that crash. Horrible time for our family. And i was also there when JFK Jr's plane went down. I woke up and she was sitting n the kitchen watching the news and was upset.
Sigh
Tony

[email protected] · Thu Jun 28, 2001 12:55 am

Thanks for replying everyone.

Superfly, you wouldn't happen to know where I could find the "video" shot of the concorde? (Sounds sick to want to see it, I know, but I only saw it once or twice on the news so I'd like to see it again.) I suppose you know what I'm talking about, if not then I can tell you it's the amature home video from a truck driver who caught the concorde on tape after takeoff.

Thanks again for replying.

[email protected]

VirginLover · Thu Jun 28, 2001 1:25 am

I was on the LIRR coming home from NYC after a long day of doing extra-credit art museum things for my class after the summer. The train was PACKED, I had to stand for the hour trip and there was nowhere to move. The person sitting down next to me was talking about how the Concorde crashed. I was in disbelief, but it was confirmed when I heard the radio.

pcancelli · Thu Jun 28, 2001 1:41 am

I was in Mexico on holidays... I remember I rang home and my father said.."have you heard about the plane crash in Paris???". I said "which airline?"...He said "It is the concorde". We stoppes talking almost immediately ...I turned the TV on and started to watch CNN report on Tv..I was in the room for a couple of hours with my friends going like this"what is wrong with you...it is just a plane?" It is not just a plane it is the Plane....

wingtak88 · Thu Jun 28, 2001 1:48 am

I was in Auckland. Just woke up in the hotel room and turned on the Tv, luckily I had CNN channel in that hotel ( I don't have CNN at my home in HK.)
"OH MY GOD" and I couldn't believe what i heard!
Then i went to AKL that morning and had a NZ flight to DUD Dunedin with a stop in Wellington. I had some more flights including a helicopter flight that weekin New Zealand. I knew I should be safe in NZ, but i just had strange feeling and remembered the concorde when i take off everytime that week. Crying

An-225 · Thu Jun 28, 2001 3:49 am

I was sleeping, when I heard my dad turn on the tv and I heard through my sleep the words, Concorde.... crash... 114 dead. I got up and watched the news the entire day.

mfricke · Thu Jun 28, 2001 4:12 am

I was on vacation in Elgin, Scotland. I hadn't seen/heard any news until the morning. I went down to the motel lobby, and saw the glaring headlines on the local Elgin newspaper. It (along with Glenfiddich whiskey), will make my trip to Elgin unforgettable.

scaredflyer21 · Thu Jun 28, 2001 7:21 am

I was sitting on my couch watching MSNBC.

Ikarus · Thu Jun 28, 2001 7:31 am

I was at Heathrow all day. Only heard about it when coming home (my parents told me on the phone, and at first I barely believed it). I immediately headed for college to go online to this site and find out what had happened.

I was reminded of all the times we had talked about Concorde with friends in the previous year. I had always predicted that as soon as the first one crashes, they would be put out of service forever. (After all, the people who can afford Concorde tickets are also the ones most nervous about flying - think of the business people in America forming organizations trying to lobby against the 737 or the md80). Being rather cynical, we had all expected the Concorde to crash because of fatigue sooner or later. But the actual crash did come as a surprise...

I still can't believe they actually want to put it back into service. I'm happy to see them again, but.....

Regards

Ikarus

EGGD · Thu Jun 28, 2001 7:56 am

This was such a tragic incident, that post just after the crash brings back alot of memorys Crying

I think, that has made me come to terms with what happened, over the last year i just have dismissed it, like it didn't happen, but now i realize, and just how Sad and Ironic it really was Sad

I had just come home from School, It was hot and sunny. I switched on CNN and there was suddenly a pause, and then on came the reporters claiming that an aircraft had aborted Takeoff at CDG. This was about 4:10pm. Slowly the story started unravelling. At first they believed it was an AF A320 but it quickly changed to Concorde.

I just couldn't believe it, a mistake, surely. Concorde can't crash, its Concorde. Then at about 4:30pm some news footage came through and i saw the huge amount of wreckage. We were told that There were a number of Casualtys, but i saw from the wreckage that no one could have survived.

As the Afternoon went on it became clearer and clearer what had happened, in the next couple of days i was shocked to see the film footage of the Concorde Struggling to climb with a huge ploom of Fire and Black smoke coming out of the Engines.

Just 6 days later (1 August) i was on my way to Australia, it didn't scare me one bit.

It was also the last time i ever saw Concorde in flight. We saw 3 at the maintenence hangar at LHR and assumed they'd been grounded. But while holding for 27L Concorde taxyed past us and took off, it was quite incredible to watch the aircraft Burn down the runway like that.

I didn't hear that they'd been grounded until i got back on the 22nd August, when i saw 6 at the maintenance hangar.

Regards, Dan

L-1011-500 · Thu Jun 28, 2001 8:20 am

Vacationing and waking up to a beautiful day in Maui, Hawaii...It was early morning when I awoke to news of the first Concorde crash halfway around the world.

L-1011-500

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