153 killed in Madrid air crash

[Aontan 0]

153 killed in Madrid air crash

Wednesday, 20 August 2008

153 people have been killed after a plane veered from its take-off flight path and crashed at Madrid-Barajas airport.

Transport Minister Magdalena Alvarez confirmed the death toll to date at a news conference tonight, adding that 19 people were injured, 17 of whom had been identified.

There were conflicting reports earlier about the number of fatalities.

Witnesses said the MD-82 aircraft left the runway with an engine on fire, veered right and crashed in scrubland within the airport perimeter.

There was a large explosion and the tail section separated from the rest of the craft.

Herbigio Corral, who headed the rescue effort, said 'only the tail was recognisable, there was wreckage scattered all over the place and dead bodies across a wide area. A lot of them were children.'

Thick columns of smoke rose into the air and police blocked off both ends of the runway, where more than 40 ambulances and fire engines arrived.

Helicopters dropped water to douse the flames of the jet and grassfires caused by the crash.

Spanair flight JK 5022 was bound for Las Palmas in the Canary islands, with 164 passengers and nine crew on board.

It is understood there may have been four German and an unknown number of Dutch passengers among them.

The Swedish foreign ministry has confirmed two Swedish passengers were on board, one of whom has been located in hospital.

The Department of Foreign Affairs has said there are no indications that any Irish nationals were on board the flight.

However, the Irish Embassy in the Spanish capital is working to verify the nationalities of those on board.

Spanair is Spain's second biggest airline after Iberia and is a subsidiary of Scandinavian carrier SAS.

Story from RTÉ News:
http://www.rte.ie/news/2008/0820/madrid.html

quote>

A very sad disaster; reminds me of the Tenerife disaster a few decades ago.

[Theirishnintendonerd 13]

This is verry sad indeed . I neaver liked those MD 85s. They kind of have a bad safety record.

[AndCar 1]

That's Sad I feel sorry for those people...

[panthersimcity4 162]

How terrible.

[Meg 368]

   No word yet on why it veered off the flight path?  Something had to have happened.

[Boggy1 45]

Very sad, and Spain has such a good record on flight disasters

[coolotter88 2]

IANAAE but I think if the engine caught on fire and stopped, the unbalanced force would make the plane veer. OR, it could be that the pilot didn't want the plane to blow up in midair.

On a lighter note, when I first saw the tail logo on the airplane picture on Wikipedia's news page, I thought about Microsoft windows. xD

[belfastuniguy 18]

Absolutely tragic, such a terrible accident indeed.

Worrying thing is that the plane attempted to take off, but had a technical problem and then returned to the terminal, to then again attempt to take off and that proved to be a deadly mistake.

Its one of the worst European air disasters, such a tragic loss of life.

Many dead in Madrid plane crash

Witness: Whole back end of plane was burnt

More than 140 people are feared dead after a passenger plane swerved off the runway at Madrid's Barajas airport.

A spokesman for the Spanish emergency services, Herbigio Corral, said only 28 people survived the crash.

The Spanair flight had just taken off for the Canary Islands at about 1420 local time with 172 people on board. It is thought the left engine caught fire.

Helicopters were called in to dump water onto the plane. More than 70 ambulances were seen leaving the scene.

In pictures: Plane crash Eyewitness account Long wait for answers

TV footage showed several people being carried away on stretchers.

The BBC's Steve Kingstone, in Madrid, said a grim line of emergency vehicles obscured the view of the crash scene.

See satellite image of airport

Spanish journalist Manuel Moleno, who was near the area when the accident happened, said the plane appeared to have "crashed into pieces".

"We heard a big crash. So we stopped and we saw a lot of smoke," he said.

Mr Moleno said he had seen as many as 20 people walking away from the wreckage.

A British man who witnessed the aftermath of the accident, Alan Gemmell, told the BBC: "The whole back end of the plane was just burnt to a crisp."

Safety record

Spanair flight JK 5022, bound for Las Palmas in the Canary Islands, came down during or shortly after take-off from Terminal Four at Barajas.

TV footage showed the plane had come to rest in a field.

SPAIN'S WORST CRASHES 27 March 1977 583 people die in Los Rodeos, Tenerife, after two Boeing 747s collide - one Pan Am, one KLM. 23 April 1980 146 people die near Los Rodeos, Tenerife, as a Dan Air Boeing 727 crashes while attempting to land. 27 November 1983 181 people die, 11 survive, as an Avianca Boeing 747 crashes in the village of Mejorada del Campo, near Madrid, on its way to Barajas aiport. 19 February 1985 148 die when an Iberia Boeing 727 crashes into a TV mast near Bilbao.

Spanair's parent company, Scandinavian firm SAS, said the accident happened at 1423 local time (1223 GMT).

According to Spain's airport authority, Aena, the plane had been due to take off at 1300 local time.

No details of the nationalities of the passengers on board have yet been released.

A local emergency service official, Ervigio Corral, told Efe news agency that there were many children among the victims.

The plane was a codeshare flight with German airline Lufthansa, which said it was investigating whether German passengers were on board.

Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Zapatero was on his way to the scene after cutting short his holiday, his office said.

The aircraft was a MD82, a plane commonly used on short trips around Europe, aviation expert Chris Yates told the BBC.

He said Spanair had a very good safety record.

Reports say it was the first crash at Barajas airport, some 13km (8 miles) from central Madrid, since 1983.

People concerned for relatives or friends who might have been on board the plane can call Spanair's helpline on +34 800 400 200 (from inside Spain only).

MD82 AIRCRAFT Passengers 150-170 Cruise speed 504mph (811km/h) Length 45.1m (148ft) Height 9m (29.5ft) Wing-span 32.8m (107.6ft) Maximum range 2,052 nautical miles (3,798km)

Back to story

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[jjune4991 1]

that is so sad. i wonder what happened to it!

[Micah 16]

It's confusing why the American media is trying to make comparisons with the Madrid bombings when there's no relationship at all.

This is truly a trajedy and based on how they said it came down, it's most likely the engines which are the culprits or at least one of them.

[Nerd_Guy 4]

Very tragic accident. It is an unreliable plane in my oppinion though. Based on the direction the plane veered, I would say something on th righthand side of the plane failed, most likely the Number 2(?) engine..

[krbe 193]

Originally posted by: Nerd_Guy Very tragic accident. It is an unreliable plane in my oppinion though. Based on the direction the plane veered, I would say something on th righthand side of the plane failed, most likely the Number 2(?) engine..quote>

It's safer than most planes. Besides, the people are usually the cause of the accidents, it's pretty misleading calling the plane itself "unreliable". It's like calling stairs unreliable just because they kill and injure people on a daily basis.

[GMT 389]

yes the md82s are sooooo unreliable. yes... *epic headpalm*

as krbe said, one of the more reliable planes.

and yes, it's mostly a human malfunction that leads to plane crashes.

I'm in training for my ATPL right now and it's a ***** huge amount of stuff you're taught concerning what people might do wrong, you'd be amazed...

but, to get back to topic, I just heard on the news chanel that a video taken by the surveilance cams of the airport DIDN'T show any fire on the plane until the crash, contrary to the reports of eyewitnesses. I wonder what that leads to.

but no matter which way, as long as one engine has a malfuction incl. fire, every plane is able to return or fly to the nearest possible airport. I had several runs on the simulator with a malfuctioning engine, and even on planes with 2 engines I always landed safely... so there had to be something terribly wrong in this md... or with it's cockpit crew...

as for the techical problems at the first attempt... well... technically, a broken lamp in the cockpit lighting is a technical problem aswell, same for any other not safety-related issue. you know, ppl always think of the worst when they here there's a "technical problem" with a plane, in fact the really safety-related problems are a very minority.

[asturianu 4]

Hello there, as you might know I am Spanish and we are so shocked and sad because that tragic event...I was shocked cause it happened so close to me. I live in the north Coast of Spain, but I usually travel by plane every Summer and used the same runaway 6 times where that Spanair plane crashed . And its so hard thinking that 153 people were killed in the same place where my fligts take off...so hard.

Everybody was terribly scared when we saw the first images on TV..they said that 2 people would die, but those images were so terrible, everything was fire and smoke, we knew there would be lots of people dead there. Then they said 150 deads the least, and that is the moment when you say "Oh my God that can't be real"

I can't even imagine how hard and painful has to be that situation to relatives of the victims.

They first said that one of the engines failed and started burning, they also said that a bird could have got into one of the damaged engines and started a fire cause it was already damaged..but oh well, we won't know what happened exactly until those investigations close.

Anyways I live near Asturias airport and those MD planes of Spanair are flying all the time. Yeah those are old, but there a hundreds of those flying. That one was damaged and the tragedy happened, but I wouldn't say everything was cause the plane itself. I flied in one of those and it was a pretty good flight.

RIP victims of the crash

Cristian

[fukuda 351]

asturianu: Me uno (tard