All 109 passengers and crew members were killed, along with 4 people on the ground.

The appellate court also overturned the conviction of a Continental mechanic, John Taylor, who had originally been faulted for using titanium, rather than a softer metal like aluminum, to construct a replacement piece called a wear strip for the DC-10. It also accused him of improperly attaching the strip to the aircraft, resulting in its falling onto the runway. The ruling did not challenge the lower court’s finding that linked the metal strip from the Continental jet to the chain of events that caused the crash. But it said the criminal manslaughter charge was unjustified.

Olivier Metzner, the lawyer representing United Continental, said by telephone that he was satisfied that the ruling would put an end to efforts to make the American carrier a scapegoat for an accident that he argued was the result of failures by French air safety regulators.

“This is the end of the Concorde affair,” Mr. Metzner said.

France is one of a handful of countries that routinely seek criminal indictments in transportation accidents, regardless of whether there is clear evidence of criminal intent or negligence.

The decision to proceed with criminal charges in the Concorde case alarmed airlines and aviation safety experts worldwide, who contend that the threat of prosecution dissuades witnesses from cooperating in crash investigations.