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The Concorde，plane of the rich and famous，is also probably the world’s safest.The fireball outside Paris Tuesday was the supersonic jet’s first fatal accident ever in 24 years of regular operation.And Air France officials said their current fleet was fit to fly safely until 2007.

Yet the plane had been having mishaps—little things.In October a piece of tail fell off in mid-flight.Last January, within a span of 24 hours，two British Airways Concordes had to make emergency landings for technical reasons—one engine failure，one mysterious false alarm.A few months ago，small cracks，said to be“microscopic”in size，were detected in all seven British Concordes，a British Airways spokeswoman said Monday;one of them was grounded because the cracks had gotten wider.

Has the Concorde hit old age ahead of schedule? Only 20 of the supersonic passenger jets were ever built，of which 13 are still in service，operated by British Airways and Air France.They were all built between 1975 and 1980.Both companies hope to keep the planes flying for another 14 or 15 years，and in fact both have recently upped their estimate of the number of“cycles”—roughly one transatlantic flight—the plane could stand，to 8,500.By this calculation，the planes are cleared for takeoff until 2006 at least.This view is supported by the fact that although its flights are high-stress and its takeoff and landing more labored than other planes，the Concorde makes only about a fifth of the trips more popular.