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MADRID: Investigators on Thursday scoured the wreckage of a Spanish budget airline jet that broke up in flames after a failed take off from Madrid airport killing 153 people.
Priests and psychologists comforted distraught relatives through the night as questions were asked over how an engine of the Spanair MD-82 jet reportedly caught fire during takeoff from Madrid-Barajas airport.
Making its second attempted takeoff, the jet veered off the right of the runway before breaking up and fire quickly spread through the broken pieces. "Hell at Barajas," was how the Publico newspaper described the disaster on Thursday.
Some of the 19 survivors managed to walk away from the disaster, but charred bodies were left over a wide area in the field beyond the runway, rescuers said.
Flight JK 5022 was to take 162 passengers - including two babies and 20 other children - from Madrid to Las Palmas in the Canary Islands. Transport Minister Magdalena Alvarez said 153 people were killed and 19 injured.
It was Spain's worst plane disaster since a Boeing 747 belonging to Colombian airline crashed in Madrid in 1983 killing 180 and the worst in Europe since a Russian Tupolev crashed in Ukraine in 2006 killing 170.
Alvarez said MD82 had just taken off, but it was not clear if the back wheels had left the ground.
She said the plane had taxied to the runway once, before turning back because of a technical problem, which caused a one-hour delay.
The two black boxes were found and were to be analysed.
The authorities did not immediately confirm media reports that the left engine was on fire during the disastrous takeoff.
Some experts said the fire in the engine may not be enough to explain the accident, and other causes may be involved.
Spanish media said the pilot had earlier signalled a malfunction in an exterior temperature gauge, which was fixed before takeoff.
The 15-year-old plane was bought from Korean Air nine years ago and was overhauled early this year, Spanair said.
Secretary of State for Communication Nieves Goicoechea ruled out terrorism, saying there was "no doubt that it was an accident."
The head of Madrid emergency and rescue services, Ervigio Corral, said the bodies were scattered over a wide area, and some of the survivors were able to "walk away" from the accident.
At the airport, distraught relatives and friends of those on board were counselled by priests and psychologists. A special flight brought relatives who had been waiting in Las Palmas back to Madrid.
Spanair, Spain's second largest airline after Iberia, released the list of passengers late Wednesday, but not their nationalities. Spanish media said four Germans, two Swedes, a Chilean and a Colombian were among the survivors.
The flight was a codeshare with Lufthansa and the German carrier said four passengers from a Lufthansa flight had arrived in Madrid to take the Spanair jet.
SAS, the Scandinavian airline which owns Spanair, said a special team had been set up in Madrid.
Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, who interrupted his holiday to go to the scene, said "the government is overwhelmed, very affected, as are all Spanish citizens, by this tragedy."
The Boeing Co., which owns McDonnell Douglas, offered assistance to the Spanish investigation.
The most deadly accident in the history of civil aviation occurred in Spain when two Boeing 747s collided at Tenerife airport in the Canary Islands on March 27, 1977, killing 583 people.
Spanair was founded in 1986 and says it has carried more than 104 million passengers from about 100 European destinations since then. It has a fleet of 65 jets.
The carrier recently proposed shedding almost a quarter of its 4,000 staff because of the fuel price rise crisis and reduced demand.
SAS had put Spanair on the block earlier this year but announced in June that it was abandoning the sale plans due to the slowdown in the aviation sector.
- AFP/yb
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