PLEASE NOTE: EDIT CONTAINS CONVERTED 4:3 MATERIAL<br/> <br />Continental Airlines vowed to appeal against its conviction of involuntary manslaughter over the Concorde crash in July 2000.<br/> <br />On Thursday that appeal was set to begin at a court in France.<br/> <br />In 2010 the U.S. carrier and one of its mechanics were blamed for a 40-centimetre strip of titanium on the runway which judges ruled came from one of its aircraft shortly before the crash.<br/> <br />The Air France supersonic jet was found to have rolled over the strip which punctured a tyre.<br/> <br />That sent debris upwards, holing one of the plane's fuel tanks.<br/> <br />The plane crashed into a hotel near Paris killing 113 people.<br/> <br />Continental was fined 200, 000 euros and ordered pay a million euros compensation to Air France, the Concorde's owners.<br/> <br />The airline branded its conviction 'absurd'.<br/> <br />The crash hastened the demise of the world's only civilian supersonic jet.<br/> <br />Safety concerns and an economic downturn after the September 11th attacks on the U.S. drove away its wealthy customers and finally consigned Concorde to aviation history.<br/> <br />Paul Chapman, Reuters
