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Shulman |
How Did You Find Out Last April 10? |
Lead | |
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On this sad anniversary, I'm curious about how folks learned on April 10,2003 of the terrible news about the termination of Concorde service. I received an e-mail first thing that morning about the announcement,which broke my heart. Where and how did the rest of you learn?
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Flag Officer |
The (heart) breaking news | ||
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10th April last year was a Thursday. The previous Saturday, Nick Savvy wrote a piece in the Daily Telegraph's "Savvy Traveller" column about Concorde and how BA were no longer flatly denying any plans to retire the fleet. This caused me to mention to my wife that it looked like now or never and she understood my desire (need even) to get aboard.
On the Wednesday evening she saw a page on Teletext saying the retirement would be announced the following morning as, indeed, it was. I made a booking that fateful Thursday. Looking back it seems highly likely that BA had briefed the media in advance and I'm glad they did as I was well prepared when the announcement finally came. |
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Unregistered(d) |
Re: How Did You Find Out Last April 10? | ||
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I heard about it on the local news and radio.
I was horrified by it, i thought how the hell can they do that to Concorde they CANT do that to her, but they did and i was utterly gutted by that as she was part of my life for 27 years, some thing i dreamed of flying on |
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peergint |
Last April 10th! | ||
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Hi Shulman,
I had arrived home from work and received a call from my mother who was quite upset. She told me to check the news about Concorde! When I did so I couldn't believe it! I was completely taken back that our Concorde was about to be put out to pasture, as it were, and I was so angry! I really was so livid and I blamed BA straight away! Of course, as more and more facts came out, the blame shifted to the French, who I still blame mostly for the whole thing. However, I'm not going off on one of my "rants", but yes, I was gutted to say the least. On that fateful day I signed up to the forum, and from then on "enjoyed" many "rants" and wrote many "epics" for others to "enjoy"! So today is my 1st anniversary on the forum and over 1000 posts later I'm still going strong! Where's my pressie's guys? Surely you didn't forget did you? Cheers mate! Peer! |
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Unregistered(d) |
Re: Last April 10th! | ||
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TV News. I was completely gutted on the day but not that surprised as I had heard rumors about a pending joint BA/AF Concorde related announcement about three weeks before. (pre SST forum membership)
Retirement was not mentioned in the rumor that I had picked up on, but to be honest 2+2 does equal 4. Sad day for all. |
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Peter Mugridge |
Re: Last April 10th! | ||
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BBC News website.
But I'd been half expecting it since early March when it was announced [ in a small paragraph in the Daily Telegraph I think ] that there was a review of Concorde's future going on. The fact that these reviews were regular but never got publicised before made me half think "This news is a softening up excercise to warn us what's coming..." It just seemed a bit "sus". And it was. |
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Drstrangelove |
Re: Last April 10th! | ||
Quote: Me as well. |
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darksky123 |
Re: How Did You Find Out Last April 10? | ||
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local TV news.
And was lucky to find out at the same time about the "Celebration of Caoncorde" fares that BA so nicely put out and was lucky to get one. |
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1995hoo |
Re: How Did You Find Out Last April 10? | ||
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I saw it on CNN and was gutted.
I promptly e-mailed Ms1995hoo, who sent back a severely profane e-mail ripping on the terrorists who caused the downturn in business travel that was responsible for this travesty. |
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Phoenix has a Concorde scar |
Re: How Did You Find Out Last April 10? | ||
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I stepped off BOAC on Tuesday April 8.
Wednesday, I called my godmother, whose husband was responsible for getting me on, after my trip fell through twice before, and thanked her PROFUSELY. Thursday afternoon, she called me back, with the news, both of us in shock. just under the wire. |
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NickV5 |
Re: How Did You Find Out Last April 10? | ||
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I was working on some paperwork on my computer and my wife was watching the late news and YELLED at me to "COME IN HERE!" By the time I got in the other room I caught the last sylable or so, and she told me the news. She then said that they were going to have "reduced" fares and if I wanted to go I had better do it soon. I made a call the next morning and they had lots and lots of seats, and the lady told me it would be best to sit up front so that I didn't have to look over the wing. I made a reservation. That night, the 11th we went to a concert and while I was there I remembered I was supposed to be in a meeting at the time I was to be in London, so just after midnight I called to see if I could get the dates changed. The reservation lady then said it was doubtful because there were few seats. At first she said the only choice I had was on the 13th, and I told her that I didn't even have a current passport. So she started working backward and found a couple of seats on the 22nd. I said I would take one, and then on the following Monday I went to the Passport office all day trying to get a passport, even then I had to pay for getting it expedited and that cost $95--but it was worth every penny because I couldn't have gone without it. Then I had to make flight reservations from Washington to New York, hotel reservations, etc. all within a about a week because the 22nd was all that was available and I wasn't going to miss that chance! During the period between the announcement and the flight I kept listening to the news hoping that it wasn't true, but unfortunately it was.
NickV |
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DOUGLAS |
10th | ||
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Our shift being on an early that day, we were taken to an auditorium in another building to get the offical news, just before it was released to the press, by the time this had finished, it was public.
We knew something was up, how could you not? As we went to this presentation, personally I expected to be told it would be going in 2004, end of March or maybe end of October. However, we were not fully aware of the scale of the problems AF were facing, we had some bits of information, not the full picture though. And we knew that any threat to the AF operation, was also a threat to us. In the weeks before, one manager, (not directly Concorde, but part of the longhaul fleet it was under), had during a visit to the hangar, (where he was never welcome) let it be known that the Inter check on OAE then completing, would be the last. This was after he was challenged on staffing and other issues, and as always, turned nasty when he was challenged. The person who he told this to was later hauled before him and told that he had not heard what he had and not tp repeat it anyway, but it was too late of course. Certainly this raised suspicions even further, though the said manager was held in such little regard that you really did not know what to make of it, had he let the cat out of the bag or just flown off the handle when he could not answer questions and now was trying to cover himself? However, by the start of 2003, concerns about too few staff and other issues directly affecting the operation, had been told to Eddington, usually through flight crew, more than once as well. Shortly afterwards, there was talk of BA appointing a sort of 'Concorde Czar' to oversee the whole operation, a bit like Walpole did in 1982 when BA looked to make Concorde consistently profitable to ensure it's survival, this 'Czar', away from the hostile intentions of Engineering management, would ensure a stable remainder of Concordes life, at this point late 2004 was seen to be the earliest retirement date, with other options right through to 2006/7. Some names of this 'Czar' were even banded about. Then in late Febuary/early March, it all went quiet on this, now of course we know why, AF were pulling the plug and all bets were off. Back to the 10th April, in a briefing to a later shift, Eddington pointed out that the retirement was being brought forward '18 months to 2 years early' which seems to confirm that a retirement between late 2004/late 2005, but again, events at AF had caused a revision of these plans. This says to me that the terrible market generally, and BA parlous financial position, had ended any talk of a second round of big and expensive Major (D) checks that would come around at every 12000 hrs, and OAD/OAE were by then well past the 23000 hr mark, OAC was not far behind either. Clearly, by late 2002, when these rumours started, BA was edging towards this timescale. The briefing on 10th April was as much about the terrible market for premuim travel, BA were already planning to end 1st Class on some routes, it was also pointed out that in the run up to the new financial year, we had more cancellations than bookings for premium travel, never had BA faced such a situation before. Something had to give. Finally, the implications for Concorde were made clear, the last BA001 would be on 23rd October 2003. It was a bit of a shock, I was preparing to think about the implications for us of a March 2004 termination. Then the head of Concorde Engineering spoke, about how we would try to get a concession of some sort on OAF's upcoming big Inter 4 check, (if we did it, it would come out not long before the end, no way were BA going to spend at least 6 million for a few weeks service), also on how we must still focus on the day to day. He seemed happy, which went down badly, now I think it was relief, as all the speculation was at last ended, as well as the constant pressures, from AF, the authorities and parts of the airline now had an end in sight. The more I heard about these pressures as time went on, the more I can now understand this. Had not I myself said enough times in the months before, 'we cannot go on like this', I know I told Gordon this enough times in this period. One interesting thing was said at this briefing, that the FAA had been 'harrassing' AF Concordes at JFK. Our thoughts were that this was some sort of stupidity about US/French relations in the run up to the Iraq war, which fitted in with the boycott by a lot of US AF Concorde pax. We later found out that in fact it was fallout from the Feb 19th incident, in which case the FAA had good reason to be worried. But they were not like this at all with BA. After the briefing, we went back to the hangar, it was quiet, people huddled in groups talking, I rang some coulleagues who were off shift, as well as some family and friends, usually starting with 'have you heard yet? We're dead', or 'we're f*****' depending who I spoke to! Certainly a shock of course, but also some sense of relief, at least now we knew, the gossip could end. Not at all like 25th July 2000 or 14th August 2000, I was in work both times for that, the 10th April 2003 was a different feeling, we knew a crunch was coming, if we were surprised to hear we had 6 months left, that was because we only really knew at close hand what was happening in our world, had we known more about AF's troubles then, we would not have been surprised at all. |
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CDG1 |
Re: 10th | ||
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BBC News website and the news on the French public radio stations.
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gordonroxburgh |
Re: 10th | ||
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Speaking to Douglas and a few others via email the night before we both knew something was afoot.
Checking the BA On-line bookings you could not book Concorde after October, so that pointed to BA stopping at the end of the Summer season. The BBC ran a story on their website late on the 9th from their transport corespondant saying BA would announce tomorrow that Concorde would stop in October. This was enough for me, ans I prep'ed the site so I could up-load it when it was all announced. This included putting the basics of the retirement section together, a news story and a speculative story on the future of the fleet. In the morning I got the Press release sent to me personally from my contact the BA press office, saying he was sorry I could not have been told a few days before. Later on in the day I got the PR call from Mike Bannister who was conference calling the media to get them on side and do a damage limitation exercise...Suddenly I dropped why the press offcie had ask for my updated contact detaisl a few weeks before. BA did very well to kepe the story under wraps, even more so when you consider the BA news from April10th had the story on its front page. |
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mushroom15 |
Re: 10th | ||
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Douglas - thank you for your detailed account - the other side of the coin, as it were. And the rest of us were only worrying about the loss of a beautiful sight... you have given it a completely different perspective.
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sparky |
Re: 10th | ||
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I hadn't found this site until around June last year - if I had, then it would have been considerably easier to see the obvious a little earlier! It certainly would have been interesting to compare notes with Douglas.
Several months before the announcement, management and other changes were made which began to cause some of us concerns about Concorde's future. This was on the business side, not technical, and seemed to indicate that the company knew that her lifespan was severely limited. A few of us discussed this at the time, and came to the conclusion that we were looking at 2005 at best. We told nobody, kept our silence, and waited. By March, it was pretty damned clear that the announcement would soon come - we just didn't have a date. Then, as Gordon said, bookings weren't possible in the system past the Summer schedule. That was it. So April 10 (or even April) came as no surprise, I'm afraid. I maintain that the Concorde guys moved mountains to keep the operation flowing until October, and for that I'm grateful - it gave me the opportunity to secure two more flights. |
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Unregistered(d) |
Douglas and Sparkys views | ||
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Sparky and Douglas
It sounds like you where all as gutted as hell and almost crying at the bad news, what you said is a real eye open-er for us who never worked for BA and i'm glad you both told us how you guys felt In 2001 none of us knew Concorde we going to be retired, i bought my camera the EOS 3 for one reason and for one reason only to catch Concorde and thats what the EOS 3 did. If Concorde had not " retired " so soon i would have continued to come to LHR to see her and if i ever had got back in to permanent .I.T. work i would have saved up all the money to fly on her as it was some thing i really wanted to do. When i was a kid my dad loved Concorde as much as me, In April 2003 when mum heard the news she was very sad of Concorde's retirement. In August 2003 when she finaly saw a BA001 take off mum loved every single second of it and she loved Concorde as much as we all do. 1 year on thanks to you and ever one else i lived the dream of flying on Concorde, I did some thing extremely special. I also made a lot good friends on here, you guys, you know who you are, but i miss her as much now as i ever did, there is a hole in my life, a dull ache which will never go away as Concorde was part of my life for 27 years. Call me " sad " i dont care but Concorde DID have a heart and soul. I miss Concorde terribly guess i'm greeving over the loss of a dear friend as for 27 years Concorde was one of my friends, i use to go to LHR plane spotting area on terminal 2 and on Car Park 1A and 2 to see her take off, every time i saw her she sent a shiver through my body and i thought corrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. The 7pm sun light now in April 2004 is as bright now as it was one year ago and i start to think about when will i see Concorde take off, what shutter speed do i need etc, but i then think she aint flying any more and that hurts like hell. I miss not chasing her around LHR, i miss the emotions of knowing that i have got a great picture or just missed a great pic cos i cut her nose off ....... doh. I miss her more than words can say. |
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Tina |
Re: How Did You Find Out Last April 10? | ||
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I was flying between Cancun and Miami on the 10th April so I didn't actually hear the awful news until I got back to the UK on the 13th. My children had saved all the newspaper reports for me.
I then went into overdrive and decided that I must fly on her. It was by then too late to take advantage of the cheap flights but I had decided that I would fly come what may. This scared my husband to death as he knows that when I have my mind set on something nothing will stop me! To cut a long story short he luckily had enough BAmiles to be able to get us both a flight on not only BA001 but BA002 as well. So all those times that he had to fly off over the years paid off in the end. On the 29th July I finally lived my dream and then repeated it on 1st August. Something that I will treasure forever. Tina |
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Jonathon M B |
How Did You Find Out Last April 10 | ||
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I heard the terrible news on the local radio news in the morning before I left for work.
I thought about it on my tube journey into my office and by the time I arrived I had 90% made up my mind to book a ticket. When I walked into the office, everybody in my department (they all know about my love of flying) was asking me if I had heard the news about Concorde. A few of the women in the department were actually quite upset (and disbelieving) about it too. First thing I did upon logging on to my computer was to get on to BA's website and book myself a return ticket for May 17th and 18th. The chap sitting at the desk next to me couldn't believe I was seriously going to pay all that money just for a flight on Concorde, but one of the girls in the office was very understanding. She just said "If it has always been your dream to fly Concorde then you must go for it and stuff the expense. You come to work to earn money to do the things you really want to do." That decided me 100% and the next minute I had clicked on that 'confirm' button and booked my ticket. The trip was fantastic (of course!), so much so that I had to fly on her again, which I was fortunate enough to do on October 21 (same flight as Jetinder) and back the following day. I only wish that I had had the guts (and enough money saved) to have travelled on Concorde years ago. Looks like a couple more years renting and penury for me, now that I have blown a sizeable house-buying deposit on Concorde flights instead...! |
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bug51 |
Re: How Did You Find Out Last April 10? | ||
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I heard it in the news at 8:00 pm (German TV), a two-sentence announcement, with the second one mentioning the fatal accident.
From this site, and considering what was generally going on in the world at that time I was worried before, but the news shocked me to the bottom of my heart. A temporary reduction of flights, yes, ruling out the rudder problems, yes - but the end of it all? I couldn't believe it, after all those efforts to bring her back. It just wasn't fair. On Friday afternoon I was sitting alone in front of the screen, reading all the news in here, and I was crying like a child. I always wished I could fly on her one day... one day I will... she's there... she will be there... But that day I had to take it off my things-to-do list. There was no chance at all that I could afford to buy a ticket last year. Thank you for your deep insight, Douglas, and Sparky, too. It was all a tragedy in itself, all those facts coming together. Such a loss. Such a loss especially to all of you who worked with and for Concorde, on the ground and in the air. 10th of April, 2003. A date I will never forget. |
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Shulman |
Thanks for Sharing Thoughts! | ||
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Thanks for sharing how you felt last April 10. I felt like a member of my family was going to leave. At first, I thought maybe it was an April Fools joke, but that was 9 days before! I had thought she would cease operations after the July 2000 crash in Paris. After both airliners pumped in so much money to refurbish her, I hoped her fate was stable for at least 5 years to come. Living in New York, I had the pleasure of often seeing 3 or 4 flights daily. She is missed by my family and myself. I still peer into the skies to see her with great sadness!
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