Christian Henri Marty (12 November 1945 – 25 July 2000) was a French
pilot
An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its Aircraft flight control system, directional flight controls. Some other aircrew, aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are al ...
who served as the captain of
Air France Flight 4590
On 25 July 2000, Air France Flight 4590, a Concorde passenger jet on an international charter flight from Paris to New York, crashed shortly after takeoff, killing all 109 people on board and four on the ground. It was the only fatal Concorde a ...
. Prior to the crash, Marty was an athlete in extreme sports.
Athletic career
Marty specialized in long-distance windsurfing, as well as rally driving, cycling, skiing, and hang-gliding. In 1980, Marty windsurfed from
Nice
Nice ( ; ) is a city in and the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative city limits, with a population of nearly one millionCalvi, Corsica, covering a distance of .
Equipped with a specially designed sailboard and accompanied by a supply boat, he embarked from Dakar, Senegal on his first, though unsuccessful, attempt to cross the
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the ...
on 28 November 1981. His second attempt, on 12 December 1981, was successful and he arrived in
Kourou
Kourou (; ) is a commune in French Guiana, an overseas region and department of France in South America. Kourou is famous for being the location of the Guiana Space Centre, the main spaceport of France and the European Space Agency (ESA). It ...
, French Guiana, on 18 January 1982, making him the first person to cross the Atlantic on a sailboard. In total he covered a distance of in nearly 38 days.
Aviation career
Marty obtained his pilot's license on 12 July 1967. Two years later, in 1969, he earned his commercial pilot's license and began flying for the prestigious
Air France
Air France (; legally ''Société Air France, S.A.''), stylised as AIRFRANCE, is the flag carrier of France, and is headquartered in Tremblay-en-France. The airline is a subsidiary of the Air France-KLM Group and is one of the founding members ...
. During his career, Marty was a pilot and flight instructor, operating a range of aircraft models including the
Boeing 727
The Boeing 727 is an American Narrow-body aircraft, narrow-body airliner that was developed and produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes.
After the heavier Boeing 707, 707 quad-jet was introduced in 1958, Boeing addressed the demand for shorter ...
Airbus A300
The Airbus A300 is Airbus' first production aircraft and the world's first Twinjet, twin-engine, double-aisle Wide-body aircraft, (wide-body) airliner. It was developed by ''Airbus Industrie GIE'', now merged into Airbus SE, and manufactured f ...
,
A320
The Airbus A320 family is a series of narrow-body airliners developed and produced by Airbus.
The A320 was launched in March 1984, first flew on 22 February 1987, and was introduced in April 1988 by Air France.
The first member of the famil ...
, and
A340
The Airbus A340 is a long-range, wide-body passenger airliner that was developed and produced by Airbus.
In the mid-1970s, Airbus conceived several derivatives of the A300, its first airliner, and developed the A340 quadjet in parallel wit ...
.
He joined the elite ranks of pilots certified to fly
Concorde
Concorde () is a retired Anglo-French supersonic airliner jointly developed and manufactured by Sud Aviation and the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC).
Studies started in 1954, and France and the United Kingdom signed a treaty establishin ...
airliners on 16 August 1999.
Death
On 25 July 2000, Marty served as captain onboard
Air France Flight 4590
On 25 July 2000, Air France Flight 4590, a Concorde passenger jet on an international charter flight from Paris to New York, crashed shortly after takeoff, killing all 109 people on board and four on the ground. It was the only fatal Concorde a ...
, operating the route from Paris to New York City. Accompanied by First Officer Jean Marcot and Flight Engineer Gilles Jardinaud, Marty commenced a routine taxi down the runway to takeoff. During the process, the aircraft's landing gear ran over a metal strip dropped by another aircraft, a
McDonnell Douglas DC-10
The McDonnell Douglas DC-10 is an American trijet wide-body aircraft manufactured by McDonnell Douglas.
The DC-10 was intended to succeed the Douglas DC-8, DC-8 for long-Range (aeronautics), range flights. It first flew on August 29, 1970; i ...
. This damaged a tire, punctured the fuel tank and ignited an in-flight fire. The situation quickly escalated, causing the aircraft to lose control. It crashed into a hotel located in
Gonesse
Gonesse () is a commune in the Val-d'Oise department, in the north-eastern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the centre of Paris.
The commune lies approximately eight kilometres (five miles) north of Le Bourget Airport, and it is ...
, near Charles de Gaulle Airport, claiming the lives of all 109 people onboard the aircraft as well as four additional individuals on the ground.
The Daily Telegraph
''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a British daily broadsheet conservative newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed in the United Kingdom and internationally. It was found ...
Time
Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...
Libération
(), popularly known as ''Libé'' (), is a daily newspaper in France, founded in Paris by Jean-Paul Sartre and Serge July in 1973 in the wake of the protest movements of May 1968 in France, May 1968. Initially positioned on the far left of Fr ...
Corriere della Sera
(; ) is an Italian daily newspaper published in Milan with an average circulation of 246,278 copies in May 2023. First published on 5 March 1876, is one of Italy's oldest newspapers and is Italy's most read newspaper. Its masthead has remain ...