Only in France.

could they hijack a ship to protest against privatisation:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4288994.stm

 

And could you explain why they [The French] seeem to be intent on taking
a Concorde engineer to court over the crash ?

I thought it was all sorted, a piece of tyre on the runway from an earlier
plane ?

 

Bad form and all that, forgot the link

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4285832.stm

And it is a "boss" (My newspaper said engineer)

 

Somebody should tell Thatcher that the French use the SAS against
strikers.

 

The clue is in the story:

Mr Perrier is accused of having been told about faults in the
aircraft but having done nothing to put them right.

 

Hijacking a ship is still "piracy", AFAIK.

 

The Frogs, unfoirtunately, do not have a very good record when it comes
to the operating of their Concordes. They lost one and *damn nearly*
lost others on at least two occasions.

IIRC, the pilots on the fatal flight should not, technically, have been
flying as they'd missed a medical check and the aircraft was also
overweight.

There's now an updated edition of Brian Trubshawe's Concorde book which
has some scathing things to say about the French operation of the
aircraft.

The Frogs never made the money on Concorde that BA made. The aircraft
was really only suited to one route - transatlantic to New York - and
on that route, London rules, not Paris. Also, France never managed to
capitalise on the "pleasure trip" market (£999 round the Bay of
Biscay, sort of thing) that the likes of Goodwood Travel managed to
market so successfully.

So they didn't GAF and axed it as soon as they could. Wankers.

 

AFAIK it's only piracy outside of costal waters.

--
AndrewR, D.Bot (Celeritas)
Kawasaki ZX-6R J1, Fiat Coupe 20v Turbo
BOTAFOT#2,ITJWTFO#6,UKRMRM#1/13a,MCT#1,DFV#2,SKoGA#0 (and KotL)
BotToS#5,SBS#25,IbW#34, DS#5, COSOC# Suspended, KotTFSTR#
The speccy Geordie twat.

 

Don't think so.

http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oi=defmore&q=define:piracy

(Oh, and I corrected your typo and grammatical mistakes because I'm
feeling expansive today)

 

HMG thinks otherwise:

Piracy consists of any of the following acts:

(1) Any illegal acts of violence, detention or any act of
depredation, committed for private ends by the crew or the
passengers of a private ship or a private aircraft, and directed:

(a) On the high seas, against another ship or aircraft, or against
persons or property on board such ship or aircraft;

(b) Against a ship, aircraft, persons or property in a place
outside the jurisdiction of any State;

(2) Any act of voluntary participation in the operation of a ship or
of an aircraft with knowledge of facts making it a pirate ship
or aircraft;

(3) Any act of inciting or of intentionally facilitating an act
described in sub-paragraph (1) or sub-paragraph (2) of this
article.

(The Tokyo Convention (Anguilla) Order 1987)

http://www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si1987/Uksi_19870456_en_4.htm

 

OK, I'll see your link and raise you one that mentions actual laws and
stuff.

http://www.imo.org/Facilitation/mainframe.asp?topic_id=362

So you're a fat fucker, then?

--
AndrewR, D.Bot (Celeritas)
Kawasaki ZX-6R J1, Fiat Coupe 20v Turbo
BOTAFOT#2,ITJWTFO#6,UKRMRM#1/13a,MCT#1,DFV#2,SKoGA#0 (and KotL)
BotToS#5,SBS#25,IbW#34, DS#5, COSOC# Suspended, KotTFSTR#
The speccy Geordie twat.

 

OK, fair enough. Wibbleflip with added parsley garnish for me.

 

in other France-related I'm in Paris today and tomorrow, and it's
still shit ;-)

Trying the Hilton @ La Defence[1] this time to compare against the
Sofitel - already seems nicer.

[1] Need to be at La Defence early until late, so doesn't seem worth
the extra travel-hassle to stay at The Warwick.

 

Nothing to do with anything on the runway.

From what I recall of a documentary, some French mechanic(s) forgot some
vital bit in the landing gear.

This was spotted at the crash site by another Concorde mechanic (a
Brit). The French then banned all other people from the site except the
French. Their "investigations" proved that the crash was caused by stuff
on the runway.

Witness accounts from firemen close to the runway say it was on fire
before it could have hit anything. This evidence didn't appear in the
original French report.

I'm sure it's on the web somewhere.

 

I wish you'd get your facts or memory straight. Yes, the bit of plane
left on the runway caused the puncture. The French did also leave out a
spacer or bush from the undercarriage which *could* have made the
aircraft difficult to control in extremis.

 

HAAAAAAAAARRRRR!!!

It be Long Achmed Silva.

 

Oh? You saw the same documentary then?
If not, how do you come to the conclusion that my facts or memory are at
fault?

FWIW, the documentary seemed pretty biased against the French
investigation. Maybe with good reason.

 

Trubshaw's book goes into this in some detail.

 

>,
says...

Did he mention the witness accounts from the firemen who were at the
side of the runway, watching the take-off?

I'm amazed that a small strip of aluminium can puncture a fucking huge
tyre.

 

Sadly, that only goes to show your ignorance.