Disaster at Madrid airport

At least 45 people are dead after a plane shot off the runway at Madrid's airport, Spanish authorities say
Other reports say at least 100 people have perished - this has not been confirmed.
Journalist with the respected national daily El Pais Kelly Ramundo has told Sky News that the latest figure from the interior ministry puts the number of dead at at least 20 to 25.
"Everybody is pretty shaken up over here. It's the holiday season so it's very surprising, very sad," she said.
An official with the Madrid emergency rescue service SAMUR says crews are removing injured people and bodies from the plane.
"It is certain catastrophe," a SAMUR official said on condition of anonymity, because he was not authorised to give his name.
TV images show a column of smoke rising over the Barajas airport.
Reports say the accident happened as the craft was taking off from the airport's Terminal Two, bound for Gran Canaria.
The Madrid daily newspaper El Mundo said the aircraft broke into two as it crashed off the runway near Terminal Four.
It added that the plane's left engine caught fire during take-off.
Other reports said the accident occurred when the plane was making a second attempt at take-off.
It is understood there were 163 people on board the Spanair MD-82 plane.
Local journalist Bill Bond said Spanair was a major Spanish airline that has been running for 20 years.
"It flies throughout Spain and internationally and has a good accident record," he said.
However, the MD-80 series does not have a great safety record.
Aviation expert Professor Joseph Lampel has told Sky News: "It appears at the moment to have been some sort of engine problem.
"It's rare, but not unheard of. The focus will now be on engine maintenance."
Malcolm Ginsberg, editor of Air and Business Travel, said: "It appears to have been a normal sort of day, so I can only imagine there must have been some sort of mechanical problem."
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This story will obviouly change as they hours and days go by. What won't change is that this is a tragedy for all the families involved I can't imagine what they are going through.

You got that right, Lodge. That definitely won't change. No matter what the number is... or the reason behind what happened... it still took place, and people died.

My thoughts and prayers to all the families and friends that lost a loved one.

153 people are now dead from this crash it is currently a mox of those who died on impact and those who died of thier injuries ( burns mainly). That leaves 24 survivors 19 of which are in a very serious condition. It has also been reported but not confirmed that the majority of the passengers were kids heading off for a holiday in Las Palmas.

That's very sad.

The airline were quick to come out with a 'possible' reason - considering they haven't examined the black box yet (I doubt it at least), then it's pretty premature to really be talking about it. One witness said the left engine failed (must've exploded if they'd witnessed it), but if the plane was already up in the air the pilot should have been able to deal with that.

It'll be interesting what comes of this. Since it's a US-made plane, they're sending a team over to examine it.

The flight was delayed two hours. They pulled out once, and the pilot pulled back in, saying something was wrong with an engine. Then they sent it back out... and we all know the result. I'm assuming that the families will bankrupt this airlines because of this. That plane shouldn't have taken off.

How sad that all those people died. And if it was a bunch of kids, that's even worse, because they had so much life to live still.

Hm, I didn't hear that, but I guess it's more recent news (I only heard what was on CNN this morning). It sounds like that someone may have known something was wrong... but ignored it.

That's how they made it sound when I watched our 5pm news.

This type of plane has a horrendous safety record, apparently there have been a few serious crashes in recent years most recently in Taiwan a couple of years back I don't how old these planes are but Boeing inherited them when the bought a company a few years ago so they must be a fair age now. I think it's time they grounded all these planes until they are all checked and I think Boeing needs to look at the blueprints and design reports for these planes to see if there is a potential issue with these planes

Is it the same kind of plane that burst into flames after arriving in Japan after coming in from Taiwan? I think that was last year or the year before.

I'm sure the end result of any investigation will just be poor maintenance.

updated 5:38 a.m. PT, Thurs., Aug. 21, 2008


MADRID, Spain - The jetliner that crashed in Madrid experienced overheating in an air intake valve before a first attempt at takeoff, but it is not clear if that had anything to do with the disaster that killed 153 people, its owner Spanair said Thursday



Sounds like the original problem was unrelated

lodgebo wrote:

. It has also been reported but not confirmed that the majority of the passengers were kids heading off for a holiday in Las Palmas.

Spanair says there were 20 small children and two babies aboard. Only three children — ages 6, 8 and 11 — survived the crash, the Madrid regional health department said.

Looking at the rubble its a surprise anyone could have survived it.