Worrying too much about appearances can have this result. <img src="http://ak.imgfarm.com/images/ap/FRANCE_AIRPORT_COLLAPSE.sff_CDG105_20040523060520.jpg" border=0>
And to think these are people Kerry wants to help us rebuild Iraq.Paris Airport Terminal Collapses; 5 Dead
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May 23, 10:58 AM (ET)
By JOCELYN GECKER
(AP) Firefighters inspect the debris of the 2E passenger terminal after a section collapsed at Charles...
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ROISSY, France (AP) - A huge portion of the vaulted roof of the new passenger terminal at Paris' Charles de Gaulle airport collapsed Sunday, killing at least five people and injuring three in a shower of concrete, glass and steel.
Tons of material from the roof of the futuristic, cylindrical Terminal 2E, which sits on pylons, fell onto a waiting area and pulled the outer walls down. Several parked cars underneath were smashed.
Transport Minister Gilles de Robien said there was nothing to indicate that a terrorist attack triggered the collapse just before 7 a.m., though the cause was not yet known.
Hundreds of rescue workers rushed to the scene, and temporary hospitals were set up on the tarmac and in the gleaming terminal, whose distinctive ceiling is honeycombed with hundreds of windows that bathe the interior with sunlight.
(AP) Aeroports de Paris (ADP) president Pierre Graff holds a news conference at the 2E passenger...
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Authorities said that five people were definitely killed but that the number could reach six. They were all likely passengers, said Hubert de Mesnil, director general of Paris airports.
Rescue officials could not immediately access the area of the accident. However, search dogs indicated there were few, if any, bodies left under the wreckage, said Michel Sappin, prefect of the Seine-Saint-Denis region where Charles de Gaulle - France's biggest airport - is located just north of Paris.
"It looks pretty bad out there," said Amy Haight, 30, arriving from Houston with her husband, Nelson, for a friend's wedding. She said she saw the collapsed building and dozens of rescue vehicles as her plane landed. "It's so sad, it's so scary. My God, we're so lucky."
The accident occurred in an approximately 98-foot-long section of Terminal 2E that opened just 11 months ago, after at least two construction delays.
The French television station LCI said safety issues caused the delays, and there had been media reports that a huge light fixture fell as inspectors were checking the $890 million facility.
(AP) Aeroports de Paris (ADP) President Pierre Graff talks to reporters outside the 2E passenger...
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When it was finally opened, the long, tunnel-like terminal with arched roof and sleek design was considered a "prestige" site in the sprawling airport complex, said Pierre Graff, president of the Paris airports authority. "It was our showcase," he said.
The cause of the accident was under investigation, and Graff said there were warning signs right before the collapse.
"Some witnesses heard something cracking just before the collapse. There were cracks and some dust from the concrete," he said. The director-general of the Paris airports, Hubert de Mesnil, said there was "absolutely nothing" in the past to indicated a structural problem.
"It's the structure that gave way, the structure itself," he told reporters.
Interior Minister Dominique de Villepin, who inspected the site of the accident along with the transport minister, said there were five confirmed dead and "perhaps six." Paris Fire Dept. Chief Laurent Vibert confirmed that.
(AP) Firefighters search the debris of the 2E passenger terminal at Charles de Gaulle airport after a...
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Officials had earlier said that six people were killed.
Terminal E2, which has slots for 17 planes, was being closed indefinitely, said Graff. He suggested the move would pose problems for arrivals and departures.
The tragedy comes as France braces for an influx of summer tourists.
President Jacques Chirac said he was requesting "that the necessary investigations be immediately started so that the causes of this accident can be determined as quickly as possible."
He expressed his "very deep compassion" to families of the dead and the injured, a statement from the president's office said.
Sappin, the prefect of the region, said there was only a moderate number of people coming and going in the area of the terminal at the time. An Air France plane coming from New York and another from Johannesburg, South Africa, had just landed, he said. Another Air France flight was taking off for Prague.
The identities of the victims were not immediately known, Sappin added.
The accident strewed concrete over an area about 50 yards by 30 yards. "There are several tons of concrete that collapsed in a structure in a waiting area that leads out to the airplanes," Paris Fire Dept. chief Vibert told The Associated Press.
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