Families Mark 10th Anniversary of Concorde Crash

Some 100 family members, witnesses, and Air France officials today marked 10 years since a Concorde jet crashed shortly after takeoff from Charles de Gaulle Airport, plowing into a hotel. Air France flew in family members from Germany, where most of the victims were from, and gave them flowers to place at a monument in Gonesse, made of transparent glass with a piece of an airplane wing jutting through it. Families lay flowers in silence, reports the AP, though officials spoke briefly at the ceremony.

A French court is awaiting a verdict in December on who was to blame for the accident, which killed 109 aboard the plane and four on the ground, and devastated the reputation of the jet. Continental airlines and two employees are accused of manslaughter because of reports that a jet dropped a metal strip onto the runway before the Concorde took off. The prosecution says the debris gashed one of the Concorde's tires, sending pieces of rubber into the fuel tanks and sparking a fire. (More Air France stories.)