20 AUG 2008 _______________________________________ *Reports Of Casualties Following Spanair MD82 Overrun *About 150 killed leaving Madrid on Spanair flight *149 dead in plane crash at Madrid airport *NTSB SENDS TEAM TO MADRID TO SUPPORT MD-80 AIRCRAFT ACCIDENT *Preliminary Information *************************************** Reports Of Casualties Following Spanair MD82 Overrun Plane Aborted First Takeoff, Returned For Maintenance ANN REALTIME REPORTING 08.20.08 1130 EDT: Authorities say at least 45 passengers were lost Wednesday when a Spanair MD-82 overran the runway on takeoff from Madrid Barajas International Airport. Witness reports to CNN indicate Flight 5022 to Las Palmas in the Canary Islands suffered an unknown explosion during takeoff, and skidded off Runway 36R. Thick smoke still poured from the wreckage one hour after the crash. Local media states the aircraft had aborted a previous takeoff attempt, and returned to the gate for maintenance. The flight then departed, about one hour past its scheduled time. Scandinavian flag carrier SAS, which owns Spanair, confirmed the crash. "Spanair regrets to confirm that its flight number JK 5022 from Madrid to Las Palmas de Gran Canarias was involved in an accident at Madrid, at 14.45 hours local time today," the airline said in a statement. "Spanair is doing everything possible to assist the Spanish authorities at this difficult time. Spanair will provide further information as soon as it becomes available." The Associated Press quotes Spanish emergency ministers stating at least 20 of the reported 166 passengers and crew onboard were killed, and 57 were injured. "It is a certain catastrophe," one unnamed official with SAMUR, Madrid's emergency response force, told the AP. The flight was operating as a codeshare for Lufthansa. ANN will update this story as more information becomes available. FMI: www.spanair.com aero-news.net *************** About 150 killed leaving Madrid on Spanair flight Nearly 150 people were killed Wednesday when an airliner en route to the Canary Islands swerved off the end of a runway at Madrid's airport during takeoff, Spanish officials said. The plane, an MD-82, was carrying 178 people, and most were feared dead. A Spanish emergency official, Herbigio Corral, said only 28 people had survived, Reuters reported. "There were 178 passengers on board, including the crew," said Valentín Narro, a government official at the Interior Ministry's office in Madrid. The aircraft, Spanair flight JK5022, was cross-listed as Lufthansa LH2554. The plane had been headed to Gran Canaria, in Spain's Canary Islands, a popular vacation destination off the West African coast. Television footage of the accident, which occurred at 2:45 p.m., showed clouds of white smoke billowing over the runway at Madrid Barajas International Airport. The airport, the fourth-busiest in Europe, ranks just behind Frankfurt in terms of passenger traffic. Spanair is a troubled low-cost carrier owned by SAS, Scandinavian Airlines System. The plane model was a Boeing MD-82, a type of MD-80. It is a long, narrow plane with engines mounted to the rear of the fuselage and the tail high in the air. Most of Spanair's fleet is from the MD-80 family, though it also includes Boeing and Airbus jets. In April, the Federal Aviation Administration inspected American Airline MD-80s and found a maintenance problem: Wiring bundles had been improperly wrapped and attached inside wheel wells. The airline canceled 3,300 flights. The wiring is required to be stowed in a way to avoid chafing by moving parts in the wheel well, which could result in an electric short. SAS said that it was doing "everything possible to help passengers and next of kin and to assist Spanish authorities at this difficult time." Founded in 1986, Spanair has hubs in Madrid and Barcelona and flies within Spain and the rest of Europe, as well as West Africa. It lost $81 million in the first half of the year, and SAS has said that it plans to cut a quarter of Spanair's flights and eliminate about 1,000 jobs, or about a third of its employees. On Wednesday, before word of the crash, Spanair pilots had threatened to go on strike, saying management did not have a plan to fix the carrier's problems. SAS tried to sell the money-losing airline last year, only to drop the effort in June after it could not find a buyer. Spain's largest airline, Iberia, pulled out of discussions, and later initiated separate merger talks with British Airways. The airline, which carried 11.2 million passengers last year, is part of the Star Alliance, which also includes United Airlines, Air Canada, SAS and Lufthansa of Germany. http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/08/20/europe/spain.php *************** 149 dead in plane crash at Madrid airport MADRID, Spain (AP) — A Spanish airliner bound for the Canary Islands at the height of the vacation season crashed, burned and broke into pieces Wednesday while trying to take off from Madrid, killing 149 people on board, officials said. There were only 26 survivors in the mid-afternoon crash, said Spanish Development Minister Magdalena Alvarez, whose department is in charge of civil aviation. It was Spain's deadliest air disaster in more than 20 years. A police officer said the bodies were so hot that police could barely touch them and told El Pais newspaper the shattered wreckage bore no resemblance to a plane. Dozens of ambulances rushed to the site as columns of smoke billowed from the wreckage. The prime minister broke off his vacation in southern Spain and rushed back to Madrid, heading straight for the airport. "I have never seen anything like this in my life," ambulance driver Luis Ferreras, who viewed the crash site, was quoted as saying by El Pais. Spanair Flight JK5022 — bound for Las Palmas during the height of Europe's summer vacation season — was just barely airborne when it veered right, crashed and broke into pieces, reports said. Spanair spokesman Sergio Allard told a news conference the plane was carrying 175 people and the cause of the crash was not immediately known. El Pais said the plane left an hour late because of technical problems. It eventually managed to get slightly off the ground but crashed near the end of the runway, El Pais said, quoting an employee of the national airport authority AENA. Helicopters and fire trucks dumped water on the plane, which ended up in a wooded area at the end of the runway at Terminal 4. A makeshift morgue was set up at the city's main convention center, officials said. Mats Jansson, the chief executive of Spanair's owner, Scandinavian Airlines, said he had no information about the toll or the accident itself. In Germany, Lufthansa said it issued tickets to seven people who checked in for the flight, and that four of those were from Germany. It was unclear whether they were German citizens. Sweden's Foreign Ministry confirmed that two Swedes were onboard the aircraft. One of them has been located at a hospital while the other is unaccounted for, ministry spokeswoman Gufran al-Nadaf said. The plane was an MD-82 on a codeshare flight with Lufthansa's LH255, Spanair said. Departures from Madrid's airport were suspended for several hours. McDonnell Douglas was bought out by Boeing in 1997. Boeing spokesman Jim Proulx said the company would send at least one person to assist in the investigation of the crash as soon as it receives an invitation from Spanish authorities. "We stand ready to provide technical assistance," he said, reading from a prepared statement. Allard said the plane last passed an inspection in January of this year and no problems with it had been reported since then. The plane is 15 years old and has been owned by Spanair for the past nine, he said. Last July, 199 people were killed in Brazil when an Airbus A320 belonging to TAM airlines skidded off the runway at Sao Paulo's Congonhas airport before crashing into a nearby gas station and an air cargo building. Five people died and 65 were injured on May 30 when the A320 belonging to Grupo Taca skidded off the end of the runway at Toncontin International Airport near the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa. The deadliest disaster in aviation history occurred in Spain in 1977 as a result of a runway collision between two fully loaded Boeing 747s in the Canary Islands. A total of 583 people died. In November 1983, a Boeing 747 operated by the Colombian airline Avianca crashed near Madrid as it prepared to land, killing 181 people. In February 1985, an Iberia Boeing 727 crashed near Bilbao in the Basque region, killing 148 people. **************** NTSB SENDS TEAM TO MADRID TO SUPPORT MD-80 AIRCRAFT ACCIDENT INVESTIGATION The National Transportation Safety Board will be sending a team of investigators to Madrid, Spain, to assist in the investigation of today's accident in which a Spanair MD-80 (Spanish Reg. EC-HFP) crashed on take-off. The aircraft broke apart and a post-crash fire ensued. Multiple injuries and fatalities have been reported. NTSB Acting Chairman Mark V. Rosenker has designated senior air safety investigator John Lovell as the U.S. Accredited Representative; four other NTSB technical specialists will accompany him. The U.S. team will also include technical advisors from the FAA, Boeing, and Pratt & Whitney. Media Contact: Keith Holloway, (202) 314-6100 hollowk@ntsb.gov ************* Status: Preliminary Date: 20 AUG 2008 Time: 14.45 Type: McDonnell Douglas MD-82 Operator: Spanair Registration: EC-HFP C/n / msn: 53148/2072 First flight: 1993-11-01 Engines: 2 Pratt & Whitney JT8D-219 Crew: Fatalities: / Occupants: 9 Passengers: Fatalities: / Occupants: 164 Total: Fatalities: 145 / Occupants: 173 Airplane damage: Destroyed Airplane fate: Written off (damaged beyond repair) Location: Madrid-Barajas Airport (MAD) (Spain) Phase: Takeoff (TOF) Nature: Domestic Scheduled Passenger Departure airport: Madrid-Barajas Airport (MAD/LEMD), Spain Destination airport: Las Palmas-Airport de Gran Canaria (LPA/GCLP), Spain Flightnumber: 5022 Narrative: Spanair flight JKK5022 crashed on takeoff from runway 36L and caught fire. Spanair reports that 164 passengers and 9 crew were on board. Spanish officials reported 28 survivors and thus probably 145 fatalities. (aviation-safety.net) ***************