Breaking news:

Airplane overshoots runway at Madrid Airport. The left engine was on fire during take-of for the Canary Islands.

Situation Update No. 2
On 20.08.2008 at 16:13 GMT+2

A packed passenger jet caught fire Wednesday while trying to take off from Madrid's main international airport, Barajas. The Spanair plane, which was headed for Las Palmas airport on the island of Gran Canaria crashed and broke apart after failing to lift off from the runway. There are conflicting reports of fatalities but emergency services said that only about 25 of the 173 or so passengers have survived. Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, Spain's Prime Minister, convened an emergency Cabinet session to discuss Spain's worst aviation disaster in over 20 years. The airport was immediately closed as 11 engines with firefighters tried to extinguish the blaze on the plane, a McDonnell Douglas MD-82. Forty-five ambulances were sent to the scene. Initial reports suggested that an engine on the left hand side of the aircraft caught fire as the plane headed down the runway. The smoke could be seen several kilometres away. Flight JKK 5022 was on a codeshare with Lufthansa flight LH 255, which prompted speculation that some of the passengers may have been Germans. 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. According to reports, some injured passengers were taken to the La Paz hospital and a further eight to the Ramon y Cajal. Other Madrid hospitals were told to free up facilities - although it was unclear whether they would be needed given the heavy death toll. The Bulgarian Foreign Ministry has not received information about Bulgarians on board of the airplane. The Bulgarian Embassy in Madrid is making all possible efforts to find out if any Bulgarians have been on board of the crashed airplane, according to the Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Dimitar Tsanchev, who made statements before Darik radio. Tsanchev also said that Spanish authorities still didn't have enough information and this is why the Ministry does not know when exactly it would become clear if there have been any Bulgarian passengers.


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Situation Update No. 1
On 20.08.2008 at 15:53 GMT+2

An airliner bound for the Canary Islands swerved off the runway while departing from Madrid airport Wednesday and caught fire, Spain's national airport authority said. Casualty reports varied widely, with media and rescue services reporting between 45 and 148 dead and at least 40 injured. According to Sky News, Spanish emergency services said that all but 25 out of 173 passengers were killed. However, Telemadrid was quoted as reporting that there were 163 passengers on the plane. The Spanish Interior Ministry said at least 45 people died in the crash. The paper said 166 people were on the plane. The airport authority AENA gave no information about the number of passengers or possible casualties. Spanair flight JK5022 was bound for Las Palmas in the Canary Islands, a popular vacation island off West Africa, the company said. The plane was an MD-80. Thick, white smoke billowed from the scene at Barajas airport. An official with the Madrid emergency rescue service SAMUR said crews were removing injured people and bodies from the plane, calling it a "catastrophe." At the airport, helicopters and fire trucks dumped water on the plane, which ended up in a wooded area at the end of the runway at Terminal 4.