Spain Madrid - 147 killed in plane crash
147 killed in plane crash at Madrid airport
Wednesday, August 20, 2008 5:18:24 PM
By HAROLD HECKLE
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A Spanish emergency rescue official says there are only 26 survivors after an airliner with 173 people aboard crashed on takeoff from Madrid's airport.
The official with the SAMUR municipal rescue service gave the toll after touring the site of Wednesday's crash.
The official told AP the rest of the people on the plane have been given up for dead. He spoke on condition of anonymity because of department rules that barred him from giving his name.
The Spanair jet was bound for the Canary Islands.
MADRID, Spain
https://teakdoor.com/images/smilies1/You_Rock_Emoticon.gif 147 killed in plane crash at Madrid airport
(AP) -- A Spanish airliner bound for the Canary Islands swerved off the runway and caught fire during takeoff from the Madrid airport on Wednesday, killing at least 45 people, the Interior Ministry said.
Nineteen of the 173 people on board were seriously injured, according to statements from the airline and the ministry.
It is the height of the summer tourist season in Spain and Spanair flight JK5022 was bound for Las Palmas in the Canary Islands, a popular resort off West Africa the company said.
Thick, white smoke rose above Barajas airport as helicopters and fire trucks dumped water on the plane, which ended up in a wooded area at the end of the runway at Terminal 4.
An official with the Madrid emergency rescue service SAMUR said crews were removing injured people and bodies from the MD-80, calling it a "catastrophe." The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to give his name.
The plane was an MD-82 carrying 173 people, Spanair said.
The newspaper El Pais said the plane was delayed an hour by technical problems. It managed to get slightly off the ground but crashed near the end of the runway, the paper said.
Many people die in Spain plane crash
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Airliner goes off runway in Madrid
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Madrid Plane Crash Witness
Witness to Spain plane Crash talks to BBC
Witness to Spain plane Crash talks to BBC
An eyewitness to the plane crash at Madrid's Barajas airport has said "the whole of the back end of the plane was burnt."
YouTube - Witness to Spain plane Crash talks to BBC
Madrid plane crash kills dozens
Madrid plane crash kills dozens
From CNN's Al Goodman
MADRID, Spain (CNN) -- A Spanish plane with more than 170 people on board crashed in flames Wednesday at Madrid's Barajas Airport, killing at least 90 people, officials said.
https://teakdoor.com/images/imported/2008/08/761.jpg Smoke could be seen rising from the end of the runway at Madrid's Barajas Airport.
The crash during take off reportedly followed an explosion on board the budget airline jet, sending up a plume of smoke visible from several kilometers away.
The official death toll is 90, according to Interior Ministry officials. Local officials are telling CNN's Spanish sister station CNN+ that 26 people taken to hospital are the only survivors, and that two of those survivors are children.
Some of those survivors have serious injuries and others non-life threatening injuries, Spanish Red Cross spokeswoman Olivia Acosa told CNN. Many of the injured were treated for burns, she said.
Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zappatero arrived at the airport Wednesday evening afetr cutting short a vacation.
The incident happened as Spanair Flight 5022 was taking off from the main runway, the official said. It was headed to Las Palmas in the Canary Islands, a more than two-hour flight. https://teakdoor.com/images/imported/2008/07/629.jpgWatch smoke rising from airport »
The Red Cross said it has set up a field hospital at the airport to treat the injured and is offering psychological counseling to the victims' families.
Clouds of gray and black smoke billowed from the site, and even local media cameras could not get a close view of the accident scene. A helicopter passed overhead, dumping what appeared to be water on reported grassfires sparked by the blaze.
Ambulances were seen speeding in and out of the airport and dozens of emergency vehicles gathered at one entrance point. https://teakdoor.com/images/imported/2008/07/629.jpgWatch as the wounded arrive at a hospital »
Spanish media reported at least 11 fire engines were dispatched to control the blaze.
A survivor told a reporter from Spain's ABC newspaper that she and other passengers heard a loud explosion as the plane was taking off.
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"She said they could see the fire ... and then it was not even a minute or so they heard (something) blow up," the reporter, Carlota Fomina, told CNN. "They were about 200 meters in the air and then they were landing but not crashing. They were landing, like, little by little -- it was not like they (fell) down suddenly."
The accident happened as Spanair Flight 5022 -- also carrying passengers from Lufthansa Flight 2554 -- was taking off at about 2:45 p.m. (8:45 a.m. ET), an airport official said. According to Spanair's Web site, the flight was originally supposed to depart at 1 p.m. iReport: Send us your pictures, video, information.
Spanair, owned by Scandinavian airline SAS, is one of Spain's three major private carriers.
An SAS official said there were 166 passengers plus six crew on the plane, which was a code-share flight with Lufthansa Airline, indicating the jet may have been carrying German vacationers. https://teakdoor.com/images/imported/2008/07/629.jpgWatch as relatives of survivors start arriving at the airport »
Barajas Airport closed after the crash but reopened more than two hours later, allowing a limited number of take-offs and landings, the airport official said.
It was the first fatal accident at the airport since December 1983, when 93 people were killed as two Spanish airliners collided while taxiing for takeoff.
The airport, eight miles (13 km) northeast of central Madrid, is Spain's busiest, handling more than 40 million passengers a year.
The United States' National Transportation Safety Board is sending an investigation team to Madrid to aid in the crash investigation because the aircraft is an American-made McDonnell Douglas MD-82, NTSB spokesman Keith Holloway said.
He said the group will depart "as soon as we can gather the team together."
