Is the French Justice Department running the show? Is flight safety in the hands of lawyers? Is criminalization the right way to go? These questions, though far from new, are being re-emphasized in light of the Concorde trial. More than 10 years after Air France Flight 4590 crashed near Paris Charles De-Gaulle Airport, a French court exonerated two retired Aerospatiale executives and a former French civil aviation authorities (DGAC) official but found a Continental Airlines mechanic guilty. The 15-month suspended sentence he received is highly symbolic, while Continental is ordered to pay fines of about $1.6 million to Air France. Financial agreements with the victims' families were settled years ago.
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