Concorde has been plagued by a series of minor safety problems since the Paris crash in July 2000, in which 113 people died.

An investigation is currently underway after part of a tail rudder fell off during a 27 November flight from London to New York.

The plane, with 96 passengers and nine crew aboard, landed safely at New York and experts said the aircraft was completely controllable despite the loss of the part.

We were all terrified... we grabbed each other Passenger on the stricken Air France flight in November

Earlier in November, an Air France Concorde had to switch off one of its four engines after a cockpit warning light came on.

The plane, which was flying from New York to Paris on 6 November, dropped to subsonic speed and descended thousands of metres.

Passengers reported panic on board but the plane landed safely.

On 3 November more engine trouble forced a BA New York-bound plane to turn back to London.

Window cracks

After a warning light came on in the cockpit, the engine was shut down and the plane, with 82 passengers on board, landed safely at Heathrow.

The incidents

27 Nov 02: Part of tail rudder falls off 6 Nov 02: Engine fails, sparking panic 3 Nov 02: Plane turns round after engine failure 30 Oct 02: Speed cut after window cracks spotted July 02: Turnaround after engine power surge April 02: Engine failure causes mid-air 'bang' March 02: Take-off abandoned after computer glitch Nov 01:Flight aborted over engine reheats All planes which flew landed safely

On 30 October another flight, from New York to London, cut its speed when cracks appeared in a window.

Although the plane arrived 40 minutes late, BA said the fractures were "tiny" and there was no danger to passengers.

Another turn-back happened in July this year, when a plane returned to Heathrow about halfway through the 3 hour, 20 minute transatlantic flight.

There had been a power surge in an engine - "in layman's terms like a car backfiring", according to BA - but the 50 passengers were not in danger.

A similar incident reportedly happened in April, when Chancellor Gordon Brown was startled by a mid-air "bang" while flying from London to New York.

The pilot shut down an engine and dropped the plane by almost half its height, but the aircraft arrived safely only half an hour late.

In March a flight was aborted altogether, when a computer glitch on the plane, filled with guests bound for Liza Minnelli's wedding, caused the engine to accelerate too quickly.

The captain decided to abandon take-off when he noticed the problem while taxiing down the Heathrow runway at about 30mph.

A similar problem happened in November, just days after Concorde returned to the air following its grounding in the wake of the Parish crash.

The plane, carrying about 60 people, was travelling at a "very low speed" on the Heathrow runway when the flight was aborted because the captain became concerned about "engine reheats".

'Safe to fly'

Checks were carried out and the plane later made the journey to New York safely.

The Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) and the Civil Aviation Authority both say Concorde remains safe to fly.

The Paris crash was blamed on debris on the runway which punctured a tyre.

Tyre fragments penetrated the fuel tank, leading to a catastrophic fire which caused the aircraft to crash.

Following the crash, the plane underwent an extensive refit including the fitting of bullet-proof Kevlar rubber linings to the fuel tank, tougher tyres and a strengthening of the wiring in the undercarriage bay.