(Reuters) - A French court will hand down its verdict on Monday in a 10-year-old case brought to decide what caused the crash of an Air France Concorde in 2000, which killed 113 people and hastened the end of luxury supersonic travel.
The Concorde, carrying mostly German tourists, caught fire during takeoff from Paris's Charles de Gaulle airport on July 25, 2000, and crashed into a nearby hotel.
The accident ended the 27-year career of the supersonic Concorde, the fastest aircraft in the history of commercial aviation and a symbol of Franco-British cooperation in the field of aeronautical technology.
Investigators believe a Continental DC10 plane caused the disaster when a small metal strip fell from it onto the runway. This punctured the Concorde's tyres during take-off, spraying debris into the underwing fuel tanks and sparking the fire.
In May, prosecutors said that Continental Airlines should be fined 175,000 euros (£138,146) for manslaughter for its role in the crash, as well as demanding an 18-month suspended sentence for the company's mechanic and his boss on manslaughter charges.)
They are also seeking a two-year suspended prison sentence for Henri Perrier, an 80-year-old former Concorde director who headed the plane's testing programme between 1978 and 1994.
Perrier remained director of the Concorde division at Aerospatiale, the company that later became EADS.
Perrier, who was involved in the first Concorde flight in 1969, and American airline Continental have denied any wrongdoing. Continental has questioned the safety record of the ageing Concorde model as part of its defence.
"I will not accept being held responsible for this accident," Perrier told reporters in May.
Continental's lawyers dispute allegations that a 43.5 cm (17.1 inches) piece of titanium that fell off its plane caused the crash by piercing its kerosene tanks and sparking a fire.
Of the five men originally charged in the crash, charges have been dropped against two -- Concorde engineer Jacques Herubel, and Claude Frantzen, former head of French civil aviation
The investigation has shown that the Concorde's weaknesses were well known, as its tyres had exploded several times in 27 years with flying debris piercing the fuel reservoir on more than one occasion.
Olivier Metzner, a lawyer for Continental, has said the U.S. airline has been unfairly saddled with the blame for the crash while investigators placed little emphasis on the role of Air France and European engineering firm EADS.
Air France, which paid millions of dollars in compensation to families of the victims, has escaped blame from investigators looking into the disaster.
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