Continental Airlines is to appeal against the verdict of a French court which found it responsible for the Concorde crash which killed 113 people.
The court ruled Continental and one of its mechanics guilty of involuntary manslaughter.
But Continental described the verdict as “absurd” and said it would appeal against it.
Reuters reported its lawyer Francois Esclatine as telling a French television channel: "I do not understand how my client could be considered to have sole responsibility for the Concorde crash."
The news agency reported the lawyer for the convicted mechanic John Taylor said he would also appeal.
The court in the northern French town of Pontoise imposed a €200,000 fine on Continental and a 15-month suspended prison sentence on Taylor.
It ruled that Continental was criminally responsible for the crash which happened at Charles de Gaulle airport in July 2000.
A metal strip, which fell from a Continental aircraft onto the runway, was to blame for a tyre-burst suffered by the supersonic jet minutes before it crashed into a field.
After the verdict, lawyers representing the US carrier – which recently merged with United Airlines – vehemently denied that the airline was solely responsible for the crash, putting the blame on the jet’s operator, Air France.
The French national carrier has already paid in the region of £100m in compensation to victims’ families, and may now try to recoup some of the damages from Continental.
A spokesman for Air France told ABTN: “We normally don’t comment on legal cases. But in this instance Air France, as the plaintive in the trial, welcomes the court’s decision which recognises Continental Airline’s full criminal and civil responsibility for the accident.”
A Continental Airlines statement yesterday said the airline strongly disagreed with the court's verdict.
"Portraying the metal strip as the cause of the accident and Continental and one of its employees as the sole guilty parties shows the determination of the French authorities to shift attention and blame away from Air France, which was government-owned at the time and operated and maintained the aircraft, as well as from the French authorities responsible for the Concorde’s airworthiness and safety.
"To find that any crime was committed in this tragic accident is not supported either by the evidence at trial or by aviation authorities and experts around the world."
The French court also ruled that Continental must pay 70% of any damages payable to victims' families.
The other 30% should be paid by aerospace group EADS which built the supersonic airliner.
Its lawyer Simon Ndiaye said the company was now deciding whether to appeal.
The crash brought the eventual demise of Concorde as passengers feared safety concerns.
Air France and British Airways, its only two operators, took the plane out of service in 2003.
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