Concorde disaster survivor Alice Brooking last night relived the horror of the fireball which almost claimed her life.

The 21-year-old Cambridge University student jumped to safety from a hotel destroyed by the doomed airliner on which all 109 passengers and crew were killed as well as four people on the ground.

"I don't want to portray myself as a heroine or someone who has survived by a miracle because I'm not," she said.

"I did what had to be done and I was very, very lucky. All I can say is how sorry I am for those who weren't as lucky as me."

Her sister Nathalie, 24, brushed tears from her eyes as she put her arms around Alice at a press conference in the British Embassy in Paris.

Asked what it was like to see her sister after she flew in to France yesterday afternoon, she said: "I was very choked up. I'm just happy to know she is safe and well."

It was revealed yesterday that the engine that failed in the crash had undergone last-minute repairs before the supersonic jetliner took off from Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris.

All French Concordes were still grounded last night, but British Airways decided to resume flights, saying it has "complete confidence" in its aircraft.

Alice, from Hildenborough, Kent, described the moment when she realised the Concorde was about to plough into the Hotelissimo.

"I heard something like a plane taking off then it got louder and louder and louder until it really was deafening until the whole floor started to tremble, at which point I realised something was up.

"I rushed straight for the door, and saw flames and smoke pouring from the stairs.

"I ran straight to the window because it was the only way I could get out.

"The flames leapt across the room and across the bed and the receptionist who was in the carpark beneath me shouted 'you have to jump'.

"For some reason, I didn't let the panic get to me and I just jumped."

Alice leapt from the first floor window and landed on a lawn. When she looked back, she saw a wall of flame but did not realise what had happened until a lorry driver shouted "it's Concorde".

Alice said she immediately called her mother in Britain to say "Don't worry, I'm alive" and her mother broke down in tears without saying a word.

Nathalie, from Wandsworth, south London, said she was at work when she phoned her sister just before the crash.

She said she suddenly heard a noise like "an earthquake" in the middle of their conversation. "I had a gut feeling there was something very, very bad that had gone wrong and we got cut off.

"I tried to call back again and again - I remember saying to a colleague there has been an earthquake in Paris or something or a lorry had crashed into her room. The last thing I remember Alice saying was 'Oh my God what was that noise?'

"It was just indescribable, like thunder, an earthquake or a massive impact."

Nathalie did not hear again from her sister until midnight, although she had been told what had happened by their mother.

Alice, whose mother is French, added later: "I had no time at all. Had I been a second later, asleep or in the bathroom it would have been too late."

But the brave modern languages student hid her emotion as she displayed her burned left hand, covered in dressings, and deftly answered some questions in French.

Crash aftermath - Page