Continental Airlines are Cleared of Criminal Responsibility By: Nina Bharadwaj

On Thursday, a French court cleared criminal responsibility for the Air France Concorde crash that killed 113 people in 2000, but there was still a civil punishment against the U.S. carrier.
The Continental and United Airlines have merged together and have revoked a ruling, in 2010, that blamed the company and a mechanic for the crash of Flight 4590 shortly after taking off from Paris, France.
It was reported that the appeals court kept the findings of the court. Apparently, a strip of metal had fallen off of the continental jet was responsible for a chain of events leading to the diversion. The appeals court said that a criminal conviction was not reasonable.
Although, because the court agreed with the findings of the lower court of what led to the crash, the U.S. airlines needs to pay over 1.2 million dollars (1 million euros) to Air France because that is what has been ordered by the lower court.
Air France has paid a non-specific amount to the families of most of the victims of the Concorde crash.
There was an investigation, and it revealed that the jet had collided with a small strip of titanium and that it had blown a tire during the takeoff from the Carles de Gaulle airport on
July 25, 2000.
The deflated tire had scattered debris into the left wing, and in the process the fuel tank of the jet was ruptured. The jet had busted into flames and had crashed into a nearby hotel. The crash had killed 100 passengers, nine crew members, and four people that were on the ground.
The strip of titanium had supposedly fallen off of a Continental DC-10 which had taken off right before the Concorde. Investigators had said that the strip was not properly installed which lead to charges against the Continental Airlines.
Air France and the  British Airways had stopped Concorde service in 2003, due to the fact that the flights were not making any money.
Analysis: I think that the authors of this article, the CNN wire staff, just wrote this article to keep us up to date about the status of this lawsuit, after so many years. The authors weren't biased in any way. They were just telling us facts that had been found out in the investigation.
Hearing about this flight crash is awful. I am glad that these airlines and courts have now come to a decision about the investigation. I agree with who has to pay because they should have known that there was a strip of metal on the ground, and they should have removed it. I hope that the families of this crash are also okay with the outcome of this crash.
Source: http://edition.cnn.com/2012/11/29/world/europe/france-concorde-crash-ruling/index.html