STORM2K

Plane has skidded off the runway at Madrid airport..could be fatalities, unconfirmed reports from spanish tv El Mundo saying 50 dead.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7572643.stm

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europ ... index.html

Another airplane disaster. My condolences to all the families that have lost a family member or someone very close to them.

MADRID, Spain - A Spanair jetliner bound for the Canary Islands crashed on takeoff at Madrid's airport Wednesday, and a Spanish emergency rescue official said 147 people were killed.

The official with the SAMUR municipal rescue service gave the toll after touring the site of the crash. He spoke on condition of anonymity because of department rules that barred him from giving his name.

There were 173 people on board the jet. Thick, white smoke billowed from the scene at Barajas airport, where an airport worker interviewed on Spanish TV reported seeing the plane in "a thousand pieces."

Spanair flight JK5022 was bound for Las Palmas in the Canary Islands, a popular vacation spot off West Africa, the company said.

El Pais newspaper said the crash occurred on the plane's second attempt to take off after the first attempt was aborted due to technical problems. Witnesses reportedly said the left-hand motor began to burn just after takeoff.

An official with the Madrid emergency rescue service SAMUR said crews were removing injured people and bodies from the plane.

"It is a certain catastrophe," a SAMUR official told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to give his name.

Twenty-one ambulances were sent to airport as well as three mobile units for psychological support, the Spanish Red Cross told msnbc.com.

Burn victims were being sent to Hospital de La Paz, according to the Red Cross.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26309867/

to add to this..some passengers were told that they may have had to get off the plane before it took off because off technical problems..when the plane finally took off it got to an estimated 200ft, the engine must of already been on fire going down the runway and then plummeted too the ground..when the rescue services got their they had to call helicopters in to douse it with water because the heat from the fire was to much...another story from this was that the Malaga football team were due to catch this flight to play a match with Las Palmas on the island of Gran Canaria but cancelled it for a later flight...this certainly is a terrible disaster for spain and my heart goes out for all the familes involved..such a tradegy.

Latest I heard was 153 dead and 19 survivors.