Spanair MD-82 Crashes

Spanish officials say numerous people where killed Aug. 20 when Spanair Flight JK5022/LH2554, a McDonnell Douglas MD-82 twinjet (EC-HFP), swerved off a runway at Madrid’s Barajas International, possibly with the No. 1 Pratt & Whitney powerplant on fire. The death toll was expected to rise with the Associated Press and Spain’s national radio reporting that only 26 of the 172 people onboard (166 passengers and six crew) surviving the crash. The jetliner, operated by a subsidiary of SAS, was bound for Las Palmas de Gran Canarias, Canary Islands, a popular tourist destination off the coast of West Africa. At least two dozen people are confirmed to have escaped the jetliner that broke apart and came to rest in a ditch beyond Runway 36L’s overrun area. Spanair said its Flight 5022 was a code-share flight with Lufthansa LH 2554. Spanair reportedly has 36 MD-80 series aircraft in its fleet. An investigation will be carried out by the Spanish Comision de Investigacion de Accidentes e Incidentes de Aviacion Civil, or CIAIAC. The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board sent a team of investigators to Madrid to assist in the investigation of the fatal accident. NTSB Chairman Mark V. Rosenker designated senior air safety investigator John Lovell as the U.S. accredited representative; four other NTSB technical specialists accompanied him. The U.S. team also includes technical specialists from the FAA, Boeing, and Pratt & Whitney. The last fatal airline crash in Spain was in February 1985, when a Boeing 727 crashed on approach to Bilbao Airport. All 148 people on board were killed. Barajas International last suffered fatal accidents in 1983, including a Boeing 747-200 that hit a tree on approach, killing 181 of the 192 on board.