French Court Overturns Continental Airlines Conviction in Concorde Deaths

But the civil settlement against the defunct carrier stands

PARIS — A French appeals court on Thursday overturned the involuntary manslaughter convictions against Continental Airlines for its role in the crash in 2000 of an Air France Concorde jet outside Paris that killed 113 people and hastened the end of commercial supersonic travel.

The court, in Versailles, absolved the airline, which merged with United Airlines two years ago, of criminal wrongdoing. But it upheld a lower court's order in 2010 that the company pay civil damages of €1 million, or about $1.3 million, to Air France, to compensate the French carrier for "damage to its image."