Unknown as to aircraft type at this posting…
Conflicting reports of deaths, 21 to 50
msnbc story
According to a CNN report:
“The United States’ National Transportation Safety Board is sending an investigation team to Madrid to aid in the crash investigation because the aircraft is an American-made McDonnell Douglas MD-82, NTSB spokesman Keith Holloway said.”
I’m very interested to learn what may have happened here.
This is a very unusual and very tragic incident.
The story is still developing of course, but now I read that there were 178 on board, up from “about 160.” How do you cram 178 including crew into an MD-82? Even in a single-class config?
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.
one source I’ve seen says that Spanair has some MD80’s configured with as many as 170 seats and that there were 9 crew. If that’s true those numbers could be correct.
Spanair says in their press release that there was 164 pax and 9 crew on board for a total of 173.
I can’t find a seat map for that aircraft, I’m looking.
Spanair has issued a press release on their website. How do they have 9 crew. Isn’t it one FA for every 50 seats? So that would be 4 FA’S and 2 flight crew equals 6.
Jumpseaters? Plus, the rules may be different for Spain. I really don’t know
According to “SEATMAESTRO”, the Spanair MD-82 has 155 passenger seats. I suppose you could fit another three pax in the LAVATORIES.
149 Dead:
news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080820/ap_ … t_accident
Thoughts and prayers to the survivors, and famlies. 
Accident Report Spanair flight JK 5022 info.
Aircraft caught on video on departure, note engine exhaust.
I read about this…very sad!
nope- this is a cropped version of this photo: airplane-pictures.net/images … -9/799.jpg
plane that crashed was painted in the Star Alliance scheme.
MD-82’s have smoky exhaust.
One of those days, where I’ve been working since 6am, and no time to research the details. Photo came from Drudge Report!!, obviously from Sky News.
For more info; Spanair crash thread at;
pprune.org/rumours-news/3398 … adrid.html
Drudge updated; Click Here (from UK Daily Mail )
Professional Flight Global crash update from David Learmount Click Here
[quote=“jpfeffer”]
God dang the media. 
So deceptive.
As usual with a crash there are different stories going about:
i’ve had some information from 1 of the 1st people on the scene.
in his opinion the aircraft didnt leave the runway(take off). there was visible skid marks from the aircraft in the ground. also the thrust reversers were seperated from the rest of the aircraft, and stuck in the ground which means they were deployed so the crew were trying to abort the take off.
the aircraft returned to stand because of a false reading on the engine instruments(ram air temperature), which(speculation follws)… could have caused the good engine to not have enough thrust to take off.
There was a report on the BBC from an eye witness that said the aircraft was at about 200 feet when it fell from the sky like a leaf. So it seems that it was in the air. Don’t know how reliable that report was.
The flight had 172 people on board, at the moment they are saying there are 19 survivors
From Spanish Accident Commission;
-The airplane didn’t have the flaps deployed when it tried to TO.
-The CVR didn’t register any configuration warnings/alarms.
-“The (I’m assuming WOW) sensors went from ground mode to air mode”…“but the wings sensors (I’m assuming the flaps?) indicated zero degrees during rolling”. They conclude, the flaps weren’t deployed at the time the plane was taking off.
-The commission says that the airplane’s manufacturer’s recommendation on checking cfg alarms on every flight was issued 21 years ago and may have not reached Spanair ever as they didn’t operate MD-82’s at that time and wasn’t mandatory. The alarms were not tested for that flight.
-The TO employed aprox. 1950m of runaway.
-Crew calls out VR at 14:24:10 (it seems they don’t call out V1).
-Airplane elevated 12,2 meters
-While on the air, it rolled succesively to the left and right twice (i.e. on two occassions, that is, left, right, then left right again).
-Fifteen seconds later after take off, the stick shaker activated.
-Four seconds later, an aural warning alarm went off (terrain?).
-No warnings/alarms on flaps/slats.
-First indications show engines behaving properly according to situation. No signs of prior fires or malfunctions found so far.
-Investigation still hasn’t concluded why the airplane was not in the right configuration (i.e. why not fully in ground mode).
Reminds me of the Northwest crash in Detroit ASN 16 Aug 87 NW255
Video , you can click on image to go to CNN to see a larger version.
I’d imagine it will be posted on LiveLeak shortly.
Friend mine from highschool lost both her parents on that flight. My grandfather was supposed to be on that flight and had missed it, in fact he called to say he was ok, and the airline called to give the news that he had perished in the accident (he was on there manifest).
I have a friend from Lake Elsinore California who was also booked on that flight. Fortunately for him a meeting went longer than expected and he switched to a later flight.
I also recall the sole survivor was a 4 year old girl, who would be 25 now!
I also recall a Canadian arrested at the scene, dressed as a Priest handing out lawyer cards to victims family members.