Damaged Paris airport terminal evacuated

By Los Angeles Times and The Associated Press

STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN / AP Cranes are set yesterday next to the Air France Terminal 2E at Charles de Gaulle airport north of Paris, site of Sunday's fatal roof collapse.

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ROISSY, France — New cracking sounds forced the evacuation yesterday of the futuristic terminal at Paris' Charles de Gaulle airport a day after a roof collapse killed four travelers.

The scare came as officials said they were considering scrapping the entire Air France Terminal 2E after a 98-foot section of the steel, concrete and glass roof caved in Sunday. The terminal is closed indefinitely.

More than 30 people in airport offices and a nearby restaurant were evacuated when the new cracking sounds were heard and fissures appeared, airport director René Brun said.

Airport staff will not be allowed back in until an investigation is completed, Brun said.

Cracking and puffs of dust preceded Sunday's collapse and officials expressed concern that other parts of the 11-month-old terminal might crumble.

The area evacuated yesterday is a separate structure from the tube-shape boarding-and-waiting area where the roof partially collapsed. It is joined by walkways. A third structure in the complex is reserved for checking in.

"Faced with such doubt, we weren't taking any risks until we receive an external analysis," Brun said.

Officials worked to reroute flights to other terminals after the collapse and shutdown erased 15 percent of the airport's capacity.

"Our worry the first day was to treat the victims," Brun said. "Today, we're looking at the question of traffic ... It's going to be more difficult this June," the airport's busiest month.
 
Authorities initially believed five people were killed in the collapse after dogs led searchers to mistakenly count an extra victim in the wreckage, but later lowered the death toll. China said two of its nationals were among the dead. The nationalities of the other victims were not made public.

The damage from the accident went beyond the casualties and the disruption of passenger flows at the futuristic, cylindrical structure that opened as the airport's showcase building last June after two delays.

The reactions yesterday illustrated a recurring tension in French public life between grand aspirations and common-sense practicality.

Two investigations, administrative and criminal, were opened. Experts from some of the 400 companies that took part in construction went to the scene in an attempt to determine whether flaws in design or construction were at fault.

Analysts wondered whether the national taste for prodigious architectural statements has dangerous drawbacks. France takes great pride in its transport infrastructure. Its air, rail and road systems rank among the best in Europe.

Air France, which recently entered a megamerger with the Dutch airline KLM, envisioned the $890 million terminal as the bulwark of a plan to make the airport in Roissy, northeast of Paris, "the most powerful (hub) in Europe, ahead of Frankfurt and London," the airline's chief executive said last year.

But newspapers yesterday were full of indignation that a new structure could have failed so disastrously. Airport employees and union officials complained about a rush to finish construction of the terminal last year. They said signs of fragility had been ignored.

The airport's bold design philosophy may have neglected basic features of safety and efficiency that are found in more humble, U.S.-style "shoebox" terminals, according to an article in Le Figaro.

Award-winning designer Paul Andreu is chief architect for the airport agency and has overseen the growth of Charles de Gaulle airport during the past 30 years. Andreu said yesterday he would return to Paris from China, where he has been working on the national theater in Beijing.

"I can't explain what happened. I just don't understand it," he told L'Humanité newspaper.

He declined to speculate on the cause of the collapse. Agence France Press news agency quoted him as saying his design for Terminal 2E was "audacious," but that the materials used were "in no way revolutionary."

To avoid using internal support pillars that could interfere with movement of passengers, the builders of the cavernous concrete edifice emulated the engineering of large tunnels, according to news reports.

Hubert Fontanel, who oversaw construction at 2E, said slight fissures were common in many buildings, and design plans had been double-checked by outside experts.

The building, which had been praised for innovations in design and comfort, could be razed if it cannot be made safe, said the head of the airport authority, Pierre Graff.

"If all these rings that make up this terminal are beyond repair, we'll tear it all down, of course," Graff told Le Parisien daily, referring to steel rings that gird the elongated, tubular building. "We will take no risks when it comes to safety."

One theory under investigation is that the ground on which the terminal was built had shifted, according to LCI television.

Material from Reuters is included in this report.