The US airline Continental and five individuals are set to go on trial in France over the crash of an Air France Concorde jet nearly 10 years ago.

A wing and one engine caught fire as the supersonic jet was taking off from Paris Charles De Gaulle airport in July 2000, the BBC reported.

Flight 4590 struck a hotel killing four people as well as all 109 on board.

Continental will deny that a metal strip that allegedly earlier fell from one of its planes caused the crash.

The iconic Concorde plane was moving too fast along the runway to stop after one of its four engines and a wing caught fire, so its pilots were forced to lift off, only to crash two minutes later in the town of Gonesse.

Most of the passengers were German tourists heading to New York to join a luxury cruise to the Caribbean. Nine French crew members also died.