United Airlines Sued by Mechanic Blamed for 2000 Concorde Crash
A mechanic who was erroneously blamed for the 2000 crash of a Concorde jet in France has filed a lawsuit against United Airlines, according to court documents.
The suit was filed by John Taylor, a former mechanic for United Airlines, against the airline, United Continental Holdings and Air France-KLM, alleging that United Airlines failed to provide him with a competent defense and essentially made him a scapegoat for the crash.
A supervisor of Taylor’s told the French police that he was responsible for performing faulty repairs, which caused an essential metal component to fall from another plane onto the runway resulting in the Concorde’s crash during takeoff.
The accident, which killed 113 people, marked the only crash of a Concorde jet in 27 years.
A French court convicted Taylor and sentenced him to 15 months in prison. He was exonerated in 2012, however, when his conviction was overturned on appeal.