John Taylor, 42, a Continental mechanic, was fined $2,650 and given a 15-month suspended prison sentence for his role in the disaster. Another Continental employee, Stanley Ford, and three former French aviation officials were acquitted.
Continental has said it will appeal, saying the verdict "only protects French interests."
Flight 4590 from Paris to New York smashed into a hotel in a ball of fire as it took off from Charles de Gaulle Airport on July 25, 2000, killing 100 passengers and nine crew members on board and four people on the ground. The crash -- the only fatal incident involving the Concorde, which first took to the skies in 1969 -- marked the end of the era of commercial supersonic air travel.
Toshihiko Sato, AP
Air France Concorde Flight 4590 takes off with fire trailing from its left-wing engine from Paris' Charles de Gaulle Airport in July 2000. A French court has found Continental Airlines and one of its mechanics guilty in connection with the supersonic jet's crash, which killed 113 people.
The court at Pontoise, northwest of Paris, ruled that the disaster was caused by a piece of metal that had fallen off a Continental DC-10 jet minutes earlier and was left on the runway. Investigators said the titanium shard -- part of a thrust reverser -- pierced the Concorde's tire as it sped down the runway, causing the tire to explode. A chunk of rubber flew off and fractured a fuel tank, which burst into flames.
Taylor should not have fitted the titanium strip to the DC-10 because the metal was known to be too dangerous for airplane tires, the court said. He should have used a softer metal, aluminum, instead, according to the court.
Continental rejected the verdict, saying the airliner was already in flames before it hit the titanium shard. "We strongly disagree with the court's verdict regarding Continental Airlines and John Taylor and will of course appeal this absurd finding," the airliner said in a statement, the BBC reported. "Portraying the metal strip as the cause of the accident, and Continental and one of its employees as the sole guilty parties, shows the determination of the French authorities to shift attention and blame away from Air France, which was government-owned at the time and operated and maintained the aircraft, as well as from the French authorities responsible for the Concorde's airworthiness and safety."
Following today's verdict, it is expected that Air France, which paid out $133 million in compensation to victims' families, will try to reclaim some of that money from the U.S. operator.