A SPANAIR flight bound for Gran Canaria from Barajas airport in Madrid has crashed during take off, killing 153 on board.
Flight JK 5022 crashed on the runway at 2.23pm local time on Wednesday, August 20.
Initial reports have suggested that a fire broke out in one of the plane’s engines leading to the plane crashing in shrub land near the runway.
An official from the Madrid emergency rescue service, SAMUR, called the crash a “catastrophe”. An eyewitness told Spanish press: “The plane was totally broken apart and was full of bodies”.
A spokesman from SAS, part-owner of Spanair, said: “The aircraft, an MD-82, was en route from Madrid to Las Palmas when the accident occurred and we can confirm there were 166 passengers and six crew on board”.
Government officials in Spain have said that the possibility of foul play has been ruled out and now crash investigators will be left to determine the cause of the accident.
Three days of official mourning have been declared in Madrid and the Spanish Prime Minister, Jose Luis Zapatero, has cut short his holiday in the south of the country to visit the scene of the crash.
This is the worst air accident in Spain since a Columbian airline Boeing 747 crashed in Madrid in 1983 killing 181 people.
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