Madrid Plane Crash

[Hardeep J]

BBC NEWS

 

Accident investigators are to scour the wreckage of a plane that crashed at Madrid's Barajas airport, leaving 153 passengers dead.

They will also start to analyse the plane's flight data and voice recorders, which have both been recovered from the debris.

Relatives of the victims have been arriving at a makeshift mortuary in the capital all night to identify bodies.

Nineteen people survived the crash - some remain in a critical condition.

Spanair flight JK 5022, bound for Las Palmas in the Canary Islands, took off on Wednesday lunchtime with 172 people on board.

See satellite image of airport

Initial reports suggested that a fire had broken out in one of the MD82 plane's engines during or shortly after take-off from Terminal Four, and the plane ended up in a field.

Spanish Transport Minister Magdalena Alvarez said the plane had earlier begun taxiing to the Runway, before turning back because of a technical problem, which had caused an hour's delay in the take-off.

Spanish media said the pilot had reported a fault with a temperature gauge, but it was thought to have been fixed.

Anger

A long convoy of black hearses rolled out of the airport grounds during the night to carry bodies to a makeshift morgue, where the victims' relatives, some of whom had travelled from the Canary Islands, gathered.

The convention centre on the outskirts of the capital was also used as a mortuary during the Madrid train bombings four years ago.

 

 

 

In pictures: Plane crash

Eyewitness account

Long wait for answers

The BBC's Steve Kingstone in Madrid says many of the relatives have expressed anger and disgust at Spanair, blaming it for the accident.

He says the injured include a young brother and sister, who immediately asked rescuer workers about their parents.

Spanish ministers said foul play had been ruled out and the crash was considered to be an accident.

The 15-year-old plane had passed a safety inspection in January, said Sergio Allard, a spokesman for Spanair, which is owned by Scandinavian firm SAS.

Spanish media said some German, Swedish, Chilean and Colombian nationals had been among the passengers.

'All destruction'

Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Zapatero cut short his holiday in the south of the country to visit the scene of the crash.

 

Smoke billowed from the wreckage of the plane

Speaking at the airport, he said that "the government is overwhelmed, very affected, as are all Spanish citizens, by this tragedy".

Television images on Wednesday showed plumes of smoke rising over the field in which the remains of the plane were resting.

Emergency services chief Ervigio Corral said that rescue workers had been faced with "a desolate scene".

"You couldn't distinguish that there was an aircraft there apart from the remains of the tail," he said. "There was nothing of fuselage."

Another rescue worker, Pablo Albella, told AP news agency: "The fuselage is destroyed. The plane burned. I have seen a kilometre of charred land and few whole pieces of the fuselage. It is all destruction."

Messages of sympathy have been sent to Spain by leaders around the world.

The presidents of Russia, France and Italy, Germany's chancellor and Britain's Queen joined with Latin American leaders in sending their condolences.

It was the deadliest air accident in Spain since a Colombian airline's Boeing 747 crashed in Madrid in 1983 killing 181 people.