[weblacky]

Correct me if I'm wrong but I thought there was more to the Air France 4590 story? I remember it in the news, and I remember the expert being interviewed on the US news claiming that this exact scenario had actually been planned and thought out by the designers (or had come up before in previous flights) and wouldn't have normally been a huge (deadly) issue. British airways was also running Concordes and had several previous tire blowouts. Leading to them making changes to tire designs to lessen blowout events.

The expert claimed, the Concorde had large protective panels (plates) on the underside, around the rear of the landing gear area strike zones, that (in the event of the tire failure or runway debris encounter with the tire) would deflect the debris and keep the plane intact (safely). We were told that Air France REMOVED THESE PROTECTIVE PLATES, to save fuel costs in weight years ago. Because they had never had an problems, they removed the safe guards designed for this exact scenario.

I can't find supporting references online, I'm going off memory...