Spanish air disaster - 22.08.2008

A devastating plane crash at Madrid's Barajas airport on Wednesday left 153 people dead. As rescue workers continued the grim task of sorting through the wreckage of Spanair JK5022, an investigation began into how the airliner, packed with holidaymakers, crashed shortly after taking off for Gran Canaria.

Only 19 passengers survived, including three children, aged 6, 8 and 11. Reports suggested that there were two babies on board who were also pulled out alive.
As we go to print a press conference has taken place in Madrid, where it was revealed that an air in-take probe – which measures outside temperature – overheated before the first attempt at take-off.
But Spanair spokesman Javier Mendoza said it was not clear if that had anything to do with the crash.

Technicians corrected the problem by turning the probe off - a standard procedure, according to Mr Mendoza. But, passengers were warned that they may need to change planes. Yet, it was then cleared for a second take-off only to crash off the runway.
A minute's silence has been held in Spain to remember the victims. Two survivors spoke of the moment they escaped from the burning wreckage.
Ligia Palomino, a doctor with Madrid's Samur ambulance service, was rescued by her own colleagues after waking up among burnt corpses: "I lifted my head and all I saw were scattered bodies," she said.
The 41-year-old, who suffered a broken hip later described how she had boarded the flight as she was going to celebrate her 42nd birthday on Gran Canaria this Sunday.
"The plane left the gate for take-off at 1.20pm but after we got to the take-off zone, the pilot apologised and said he would have to return because of a technical problem," she said.
Dr. Palomino said she was left semi-conscious immediately after the plane slammed into a field beyond the runway, but woke up when one of the fuel tanks exploded.
Another passenger who escaped the inferno, Beatriz Reyes, had been returning home to Gran Canaria via Madrid from a holiday in South Africa.
The bank manager, 41, said she called her brother, Carlos, using a phone from a young male survivor while surrounded by burning wreckage.
She managed to tell her brother: "I've had an accident but I'm okay," before the line went dead. Carlos then tracked his sister to the hospital.
The devastation was described by an airport worker, who witnessed  the disaster. “The plane was totally broken apart,” he said. “It was full of bodies.”

Pablo Albella, an emergency rescue worker, said: “The scene was devastating. The fuselage was destroyed and the plane burned. I have seen a kilometre of charred land and few whole pieces of the fuselage.”

A civil guard said:  “It doesn't look anything like a plane. It’s horrific - everything is burnt. The bodies were boiling hot and we burnt ourselves collecting them. It's the closest to hell that I've seen.”

Another witness added: It seems almost incredible that anyone survived a fireball like this.”