Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Spanair Plane Crash in Madrid

A Spanair MD-83 enroute to the Canary Islands appears to have crashed on takeoff from Madrid's Barajas Airport, according to many sources. Here is the story at the BBC News and also CNN. Preliminary reports indicate that only 26 passengers out of the roughly 170+ on board survived. Reportedly, the plane had mechanical problems prior to takeoff, and may have even aborted one previous takeoff. There are also reports of an explosion in one of the engines, triggering a massive fire. Due to the intense heat of the fire, the rescue crews were unable to get close enough to the plane to rescue more souls.

Condolences for everyone lost in this tragedy.

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