Posted on 08/20/2008 8:12:53 AM PDT by rightwingintelligentsia
Some 140 people were killed today when a packed passenger jet caught fire and overshot the runway as it tried to take off from Madrid airport, official sources said.
The Spanair plane, with 173 passengers and crew aboard, crashed and broke apart as it tried to take off from Terminal 4 at the Barajas airport. It was heading for Las Palmas airport on the island of Gran Canaria.
The Reuters news agency quoted sources in the emergency services as saying that all but about 25 of those aboard had been killed - far ahead of initial death tolls given by officials.
The Spanish Cabinet was convened for an emergency session to discuss the catastrophe.
Relatives of those aboard the plane soon began arriving at the airport, where a spokesman said that a room had been set aside for them and psychological counselling was on offer.
The airport, Spain's main hub, was closed as firefighters aboard 11 engines tried to tackle a blaze on the plane, a McDonnell Douglas MD-82.
(Excerpt) Read more at timesonline.co.uk ...
ok. Question.
There isn’t any chance someone leaving from Madrid today and heading for Pittsburgh would have any reason to be on that plane?
right?
Prayers for all those onboard.
Doubtful. I understand the plane was heading for Las Palmas in the Canary Islands.
phew!
Is someone you know flying in from Madrid?
explosion and fire at the back ... engines at the back.
MD82s don't fly trans-oceanic routes. Not enough range.
Big Ben?
Madrid airport is shut down now. Maybe he/she is still there?
And Spanair doesn’t fly outside of Europe.
Unfortunately the toll has been reported in the reverse order from what you hope....it was initially 20 and is now 140.
Prayers for all>
Heard report that 19 people have been brought to a local hospital
Anybody flying to the US from Madrid today might be delayed, but otherwise ok. Most US-bound flights leave in the morning or early afternoon, and the crash didn’t occur until 2:15 or so, meaning that most US bound flyers would already have left. The plane that crashed was going to the Canary Islands.
BUMP!
If you want on or off this aerospace ping list, please contact Paleo Conservative or phantomworker by Freep mail.
Wow, when I posted that pic I didn’t intend to set up a before and after scenario. Prayers for the survivors and the loved ones of all the passengers and crew.
Bad news.
It sounds like an awfully small plane to be making a trans-Atlantic flight.
:(
Hope it wasn’t terrorists. The death count climb was kind of shocking. The initial headline i read was about 30 or so.
dear lord...
This Spanair flight was from Madrid to Las Palmas in the Canary Islands. It departed from a completely different concourse at the Madrid airport. International long distance flights have their own concourse (2) at Madrid.
>>an explosion and fire at the back of the plane>>
No indication the plane tride to abort takeoff. Possibly a generator fire, but sounds more like one of the engines had a fuel problem, which would indicate why the plane had insufficient thrust to takeoff normally.
Absolutely not. 120 degree wrong direction.
Why would the pilot still be trying to take off when the plane was on fire?
The plane was scheduled to leave at 1:00 pm, but the pilot aborted the take off because there was something wrong with the left engine. They took the plane over to the parking area and the ground crew examined it and approved it. When the pilot tried to take off the second time, around 2:25 pm, one of the engines either burst into flames or fell off (varying eye-witness accounts). In any case, the plane had reached the speed at which the take-off couldn’t be aborted, and the pilot couldn’t get the nose up enough to take off. It slid off the runway into a field, broke up, and burst into flames at the back. This also set fire to the field and brush around the plane.
It wasn’t terrorism but probably poor maintenance. The plane was about 20 years old, and was one of several of this type owned by Spanair.
My guess is he tried to abort the takeoff but didn’t have enough runway left.
Uncle Slayton, I think Scotswife may have had an acquaintance or loved one leaving Madrid to return to CONUS at this time.
She is probably worried.
With technology the way it is today, jet engines shouldn’t fail catastrophically like that. It must have been poor maintenance. Airlines are cutting corners these days.
There are three very important speeds that an aircrew always knows during a commercial jetliner takeoff—they’re called V1, Vr, and V2.
V1 is the maximum speed at which you can still stop the airplane on the runway. Once you exceed V1, you ARE going to try to take off, because you just won’t have enough real estate to get it stopped without going off the runway.
Vr is rotation speed, the speed at which the pilot pulls the control column back and brings the nose of the plane into the air.
V2 is (if I remember right) the minimum safe takeoff speed for the weight and configuration of the aircraft.
So if this jet had an engine fire or failure just after exceeding V1, getting it off the ground would be a very dicey proposition with just one engine, and they wouldn’t have the room to stop. Jetliners can cruise on one engine no problem...but I don’t know about a fully-loaded MD-82 with 166+ people onboard, on a hot day, being able to get off the ground on one engine.
}:-)4
I wonder how many plane parts are embedded in those hills.
Terrible news. My daughter spent about 10 months in Madrid last fall and this spring but is back home now.
Prayers for those affected.
>>So if this jet had an engine fire or failure just after exceeding V1, getting it off the ground would be a very dicey proposition with just one engine, and they wouldn’t have the room to stop. Jetliners can cruise on one engine no problem...but I don’t know about a fully-loaded MD-82 with 166+ people onboard, on a hot day, being able to get off the ground on one engine.>>
That is why I hypothesized engine failure. The flight recorder should provide more information.
:-(
Spanair is a ‘Southwest/Ryan Air’ style airline. Cheap fares.
Reports are that the plane got 200 feet off the ground and exploded. Also the plane had engine trouble 4 days ago, plus had unsuccessfully tried to take off before this attempt but had aborted with mechanics subsequently checking it out and clearing it.
Very sad.
Very tragic.
Seven dead in an aircraft accident in Barajas [Spain]
(Title was posted before the current casualty estimates; I've asked the mods to update it.)
It wouldn't be certified to fly as a commercial aircraft if it couldn't complete a takeoff after V1 with one engine out. If the temperature were too high, the crew would have to leave off some weight (fuel, cargo, or passengers) to operate the aircraft within limits.
Actually, my initial speculation was that the pilots saw some sort of failure after V1, and tried to stop when they should have continued. That would put the aircraft off the end of the runway at (potentially) high speeds and could lead to the kind of impact/fire described. Incidentally, that's why there is a speed past which you continue the takeoff - it's better to get the plane into the air and circle to land then to run off the end of the runway and hit things on the ground.
“
The Spanair plane (snip) was heading for Las Palmas airport on the
island of Gran Canaria.
“
Note to self...never board an aircraft with Las Palmas as the destination.
(That’s where the two 747s were headed until diverted to their
appointment with destiny at Tenerife)
Tenerife Disaster
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenerife_disaster
The news media blamed all the MD-80's parked at LGA on "Global Warming" when it was "lowest bidder" parts failing in recently overhauled motors that was really causing the problem.
Either the pilots screwed up, the plane was way overweight or the failure was more catastophic than a simple inflight shut down.
I had the weirdest thing happen. I got up late this morning after being up until 4 a.m. I’d been dreaming. I don’t remember about what, but suddenly someone in my dream screamed, “Oh my God, he (a former astronaut) crashed!” It woke me up. I got up, went to my study, and turned on FOX News to see Harris Faulkner reporting this plane crash.
It gave me a very strange feeling that I haven’t quite been able to shake.
Now, I am just praying for the passengers and their families. Imagine the panic of that pilot when he realized he could not save the plane from dissaster.
I laugh and smile when newspaper people attempt to write dialogue.
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