page_title: Charles de Gaulle Airport
section_title: Collapse of Terminal 2E
hierarchical_section_title: Charles de Gaulle Airport / Terminals / Terminal 2 / Collapse of Terminal 2E
caption_attribution_description: English: Collapsed Terminal 2E at Charles de Gaulle Airport
context_page_description: Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport, also known as Roissy Airport, is the largest international airport in France and second busiest airport in Europe. Opened in 1974, it is located in Roissy-en-France, 23 km northeast of Paris. It is named after statesman Charles de Gaulle.
  Charles de Gaulle Airport is located within portions of several communes in Val-d'Oise, Seine-Saint-Denis and Seine-et-Marne. It serves as the principal hub for Air France and a destination for other legacy carriers, as well as a focus city for low-cost carriers easyJet, Vueling and Norwegian Air Shuttle. The Airport is operated by Groupe ADP under the brand Paris Aéroport.
  In 2019, the airport handled 76,150,007 passengers and 498,175 aircraft movements, thus making it the world's tenth busiest airport and Europe's second busiest airport in terms of passenger numbers. Charles de Gaulle is also the busiest airport within the European Union. In terms of cargo traffic, the airport is the twelfth busiest in the world and the second busiest in Europe, handling 2,150,950 metric tonnes of cargo in 2012.
  As of 2017, the airport offers direct flights to the most countries and hosts the most airlines in the world.
context_section_description: On 23 May 2004, shortly after the inauguration of terminal 2E, a portion of it collapsed near Gate E50, killing four people. Two of the dead were reported to be Chinese citizens, one Czech and the other Lebanese. Three other people were injured in the collapse. Terminal 2E had been inaugurated in 2003 after some delays in construction and was designed by Paul Andreu. Administrative and judicial enquiries were started. Andreu also designed Terminal 3 at Dubai International Airport, which collapsed while under construction on 28 September 2004.
  Before this accident, ADP had been planning for an initial public offering in 2005 with the new terminal as a major attraction for investors. The partial collapse and indefinite closing of the terminal just before the beginning of summer seriously hurt the airport's business plan.
  In February 2005, the results from the administrative inquiry were published. The experts pointed out that there was no single fault, but rather a number of causes for the collapse, in a design that had little margin for safety. The inquiry found the concrete vaulted roof was not resilient enough and had been pierced by metallic pillars and some openings weakened the structure. Sources close to the inquiry also disclosed that the whole building chain had worked as close to the limits as possible, so as to reduce costs. Paul Andreu denounced the building companies for having not correctly prepared the reinforced concrete.
  On 17 March 2005, ADP decided to tear down and rebuild the whole part of Terminal 2E (the "jetty") of which a section had collapsed, at a cost of approximately €100 million. The reconstruction replaced the innovative concrete tube style of the jetty with a more traditional steel and glass structure. During reconstruction, two temporary departure lounges were constructed in the vicinity of the terminal that replicated the capacity of 2E before the collapse. The terminal reopened completely on 30 March 2008.
caption: Collapsed Terminal 2E, June 2004
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