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Concorde flight instructors to take off again
( 2001-08-30 15:31 ) (7 )

French flight instructors will take Concorde into the skies on Thursday for the first time since one of the sleek supersonic passenger jets crashed last year killing 113 people, Air France said on Wednesday.

The instructors will familiarise themselves with the aircraft again with a series of 90 minute training flights over the next two days from a freight airport near Chalons-en-Champagne in northeast France, a spokeswoman said.

"The flights are aimed at requalifying the pilot instructors after a long time away and to get them ready to retrain others for when commercial flights resume," the spokeswoman said. She could not say whether the training flights would break the sound barrier.

Although Concorde jets have made several flights to test safety modifications, most pilots have not been back on board since nine crew died along with all 100 passengers on the Air France Concorde that crashed near Paris in July last year.

Four people were also killed on the ground when the plane, trailing fuel and fire, smashed into a hotel shortly after taking off from Charles de Gaulle airport for New York.

Concorde, operated by Air France and British Airways, has been grounded since last August when aviation authorities withdrew its airworthiness certificate.

Air France and British Airways have since been working on modifications to the aircraft in order to get the green light to resume commercial flights.

A decision from British and French civil aviation authorities on re-instating the aircraft's airworthiness certificate is expected shortly.

Commercial flights would then resume once the two airlines had refitted the remaining 12 aircraft with the modifications, including lining fuel tanks with a kevlar protective shell, adding tougher tyres and modifying undercarriage wiring.

Aviation law requires that when more than 90 days have lapsed between flights, Concorde pilots need to have further training to keep their qualifications up to date.

Air France said in a statement the instructors had trained in simulators, but these flights would allow them to practice take-offs and landings.