Source: Bloomberg News

Continental Airlines Inc. asked an appeals court near Paris to overturn its manslaughter conviction for the deaths of 113 people in the crash of Air France's Concorde supersonic jet almost 12 years ago.

Now part of United Continental Holdings Inc., the world's largest airline, Continental and a maintenance engineer dispute their December 2010 convictions and plan to show the court new evidence the deaths weren't their fault during the hearings, due to run through May.

"Neither the company nor its employees were responsible for the Concorde accident," Continental said in an e-mailed statement. "To blame the crash on a small strip of metal from another aircraft is absurd."

The Concorde crashed soon after take-off on July 25, 2000, when a fireball was ignited after the jet ran over a metal strip that fell from a prior Continental flight, investigators said. The probe found the strip tore one of the plane's tires and sent debris into its fuel tanks. Continental has disputed that scenario, telling the court the fire began before the jet hit the strip. The airline said it will present new evidence to the Versailles appeals court to support its claim.

"The court was mistaken" in holding Continental liable, the carrier's lawyer, Olivier Metzner, said before today's hearing began. "The plane was already on fire when it hit this metal strip -- the accident was unavoidable," he said, calling the Concorde a plane of "extreme fragility."

Prosecution Appeal

Prosecutors also appealed the 2010 verdict by the lower court, meaning four men who were cleared must again face manslaughter charges. One of them, a former official at France's civil aviation authority named Claude Frantzen, filed a constitutional challenge arguing they can't appeal a verdict that followed the trial prosecutor's recommendations.

The court must consider the matter "immediately," said his lawyer, Daniel Soulez-Lariviere, defending the constitutional question as "a serious one."

The judges said they will rule on the challenge at the next hearing, scheduled for March 13.

They refused to postpone the trial altogether to await the recovery of one defendant, Henri Perrier, who led the Concorde program from 1978 to 1994. The judges said it is uncertain how long it will take him to recover sufficiently to participate. His case and that of another defendant who worked at the jet's former manufacturer will be heard at a later time, as the prosecution recommended. Both men were cleared in 2010.

The lower court ordered Continental to pay 1.2 million euros ($1.6 million) in damages and fines and also held a mechanic named John Taylor responsible, saying he ignored the risk of using the wrong materials in maintenance. Taylor received a suspended sentence.

Last Flight

The crash hastened the demise of the Concorde. Flights were grounded for 16 months afterwards and the plane went back into service just as demand for air travel fell after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The Concorde's last commercial flight was in 2003.

Air France, now part of Air France-KLM Group, is participating in the appeals process "because Continental hasn't stopped arguing it was Air France's responsibility," said the carrier's lawyer, Fernand Garnault. "Air France wants to be there to be able to respond."

European Aeronautic, Defence & Space Co.'s Airbus SAS now owns Aerospatiale, which built the Concorde. EADS was held "civilly liable" with Continental and the mechanic, and ordered to pay victims 195,000 euros. The company has also appealed the civil liability finding.

United Airlines parent UAL Corp. and Continental merged in 2010 to form Chicago-based United Continental Holdings.