CLOSE TO 150 people died and more than 26 were injured, some of them with terrible burns, after a Spanish aircraft crashed on take-off from Madrid's Barajas airport yesterday.
The Spanair MD-82, flight number JKK 5022 and code-sharing with Lufthansa LH255, had 164 passengers - including two babies - and nine crew on board and was on a regular flight from Madrid to Las Palmas de Gran Canarias. As with most flights to the Canary Islands at this time of the year, it was full.
Nearly all the passengers are believed to have been Spaniards flying to the islands on holiday or islanders who had been visiting Madrid. However, there are also believed to have been some Swedish and Dutch passengers on board. The airline says it will not issue a list of victims until families have been informed.
First reports say that a port-side engine appeared to explode and catch fire just as the aircraft was taking off, although other witnesses say it was still on the ground.
It veered off the runway and came to a halt some 300 metres away, broke up and burst into flames at 3.45pm local time. One rescue worker described the scene as "Dante-esque" and said it was a miracle anyone survived. He talked of carbonised bodies inside the burned-out wreckage.
There are unconfirmed reports that several passengers had used their mobile phones to say there appeared to be problems and they expected to go back to the airport to wait for another flight.
All flights were suspended for just over an hour and emergency services - not only from Madrid but from places up to 120km (75 miles) away - rushed to the scene. Within minutes, a convoy of more than 70 ambulances, 40 fire engines and other vehicles snaked its way to the scene.
Columns of thick smoke could be seen for many miles around, and two helicopters, used to fight forest fires, dropped water on the wreckage to extinguish the flames.
As soon as the news of the accident was received, desperate relatives, many of them in tears, began to arrive at Madrid and Las Palmas airports. One woman in Las Palmas said that her two sons were on the flight and that their mobile phones were not answering.
Special lounges, with social workers, medical staff and psychologists, have been set up for relatives at both airports and Spanair chartered a special flight for those who wished to fly to Madrid to be with the victims or survivors.
Madrid's IFEMA trade fair and exhibition centre opened up one of its buildings as a special morgue, bringing back memories of the 2004 Madrid train bombing when the building was used for a similar task.
King Juan Carlos sent a message of condolence from his holiday home on the island of Mallorca, and prime minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero interrupted his holiday near Huelva to return to Madrid.
Madrid airport has a good safety record, and this is the first accident at Barajas since 1983 when 181 people died after an Avianca plane crashed as it was coming in to land.
The MD-82, which passed its annual inspection in January this year, has been flying for 15 years - it flew for Korean Air until 1999 when it was transferred to Spanair.
Steven Carroll adds:A Department of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman last night said there were no indications of any Irish nationals being on board the flight and said embassy staff were on standby. A Dublin Airport Authority spokeswoman said Spanair flights use Dublin airport each week.
The Spanish airline, which is owned by Scandinavian airline SAS, operates charter flights from Ireland to Spain.