British Airways Grounds Concorde Fleet; Fmr. FAA Official Foresees 'Major Impact'
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: British Airways has canceled all Concorde flights. That after being told that the plane's airworthiness certificate will be revoked. Air France, you may remember, grounded its Concordes after one of its supersonic jets crashed near Paris last month, killing 113 people. Live to London, Amanda Kibel tracking this and the very latest now there. Amanda, hello.</s>AMANDA KIBEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Bill, good morning. Yes, British Airways tells us that after the notification from the Air Accident Investigation Branch here in London, they immediately decided to ground their entire fleet of seven Concorde. They have no details at this point as to why the Air Accident Investigation Branch has recommended that they do this or why the Air Accident Investigation Branch has decided to revoke the airworthiness certificate of the Concorde. They say that they have new information which they have gleaned from the crash, which happened just outside Paris some three weeks ago, but the details of exactly what that new information is and why this decision was made now has still not yet emerged -- Bill.</s>HEMMER: All right, Amanda Kibel, the latest from London. Let's take it back now in this country here in the U.S. Joining us from Washington to talk about these developments, Michael Goldfarb, former FAA chief of staff there, live from our bureau in D.C. Michael, good to see you. Good morning to you.</s>MICHAEL GOLDFARB, FORMER FAA CHIEF OF STAFF: Good to see you, Bill.</s>HEMMER: What's your take on this. Said to be not necessarily unusual after a big crash, but what do we know thus far?</s>GOLDFARB: Well, pretty significant to pull the airworthiness certificate, in effect grounding the Concorde. This kind of implies that more than foreign object damage, a piece of metal on the runway that led to a series of things, the tires bursting, for example. We may have something systemic with the fleet itself. All these planes were manufactured at the same time, as you know, and it's significant. It's bad news for the Concorde. Recertification, and we'll have to wait to see -- let me give you the range of possibilities.</s>HEMMER: OK, sure.</s>GOLDFARB: Worst case that the recertification would be so significant for the engine performance, other main parts of that aircraft that it wouldn't be worth it to go -- to do that kind of repair. And some have questioned whether the fleet had a long life left to it at any rate, given its high cost and other concerns. On the other end, Bill, would be a more minor kind of thing that could occur rather rapidly and put the planes back in service.</s>HEMMER: Is it safe to conclude that BA's been going over these planes with pretty close attention given to all details, given what happened at Charles de Gaulle last month?</s>GOLDFARB: Yes, probably so. It was somewhat questionable about the split here. In other words, the French decided to ground their fleet, the British allowed theirs to fly and one would wonder why. And, yes, I'm sure the British Civil Aviation authorities have taken extra precautions, but this announcement today means that there's something systemic with the Concorde, new information that will basically lead to a different outcome here. Those planes won't fly till, in fact, their airworthiness is granted again.</s>HEMMER: Michael, last hour we were talking with another aviation expert live here on CNN's MORNING NEWS and I was just curious just to think and consider at this point about the Concorde. Is it possible that, prior to this incident with BA, that a number of people across the industry still believed in the Concorde as a flying machine?</s>GOLDFARB: Oh, absolutely. I mean, it's a wonderful flying machine. And, you know, it went from first place to last place from safety because of its few numbers of cycles. It's a wonderful aircraft but, once again, this is a significant action. It raises doubts about, in effect, the design or the configuration of the aircraft to safely continue flight. You know, foreign object damage on a runway occurs quite frequently. It shouldn't lead to catastrophic results. And I'm sure the investigators are looking closely at that link as well as whatever new information they have that they'll announce on Thursday.</s>HEMMER: Don't want to make a direct tie to ValuJet back in 1996, but certainly that was the major downfall for that airline. We'll see what happens now with this fleet. Go ahead quickly, you thought?</s>GOLDFARB: No, no, correct. I think, given the history of the Concorde, where it is right now, this is a major impact that's going to be hard to absorb, whereas a Boeing 747 with thousands of planes normally has the wherewithal to come back from this kind of a grounding.</s>HEMMER: Michael, thanks for stopping by.</s>GOLDFARB: Pleasure.</s>HEMMER: Michael Goldfarb live there in Washington for more on what's happening with the Concorde fleet.