A FRENCH COURT HAS FOUND US airline Continental criminally responsible for the fatal crash which killed 113 people in 2000.

The Air France Concorde flight bound for New York burst into flames after a tyre blew during take-off from Charles de Gaulle Airport,  puncturing the plane’s fuel tanks.

The plane crashed soon after take-off, striking a hotel. Four people were killed on the ground.

The court ruled that a strip of titanium on the runway which had fallen from a Continental Airlines flight was responsible for the Concorde puncture, according to France 24.

Continental has been fined €200,000 and ordered to pay €1m in damages, and its mechanic John Taylor, 42, was given a 15-month suspended sentence for manslaughter. Taylor was fined €2,000, according to the New York Times.

The French civil aviation authority and the designers and engineers of the Concorde plane were found not guilty of manslaughter.

Concorde carriers British Airways and Air France both ended their Concorde services in 2003, after the crash had taken a financial toll on Concorde flights.

Yesterday, hundreds of people marked the 10th anniversary of the crash by attending memorial services near the crash site. Most of the victims were Germans on a package tour, France 24 reports.