Many dead in Madrid plane crash
bbc world news
20-Aug-2008 (one comment)

The death toll from a passenger plane crash at Madrid's Barajas airport has risen to 153, Spain's government says.

Nineteen people survived when the plane swerved off the runway but some are in critical condition, said Development Minister Magdalena Alvarez.

It is thought the left engine caught fire as the Spanair flight took off for the Canary Islands at about 1420 (1220 GMT) with 172 people on board.

Helicopters dumped water on the burning plane and some 70 ambulances attended.

Spain's development minister told a news conference that investigators had ruled out foul play and considered the crash an accident.

As night fell, recovery teams were still removing bodies from the crash site, which is now silent and in darkness, except for the occasional flashing blue lights of emergency vehicles, the BBC's Steve Kingstone in Madrid says.

Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Zapatero cut short his holiday in the south of the country to visit the scene of the crash.

Speaking at the airport, he said: "The government will make all its efforts to support the families in this hard moment as they have received the news of such tragedy."

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Farhad Kashani

Such a sick and twisted

by Farhad Kashani on Thu Aug 21, 2008 02:59 PM PDT

Such a sick and twisted hate obsession with the U.S that defies any logic or common sense to mention U.S' name in very single piece of news saying "U.S made ....". So sick.

Do you have any ideas how many countries and how many airlines around the world use U.S made aircrafts such as Boeing? Literally hundreds, maybe thousands, of airlines. Boeing, along with Airbus, are the top two aircraft sellers in the world. Do you know how many flights "U.S made" aircrafts do on daily basis? And what is the rate of accidents of those "U.S made" aircrafts? They have the nerve not to mention a single word about the much frequent plain crashes in Iran using "Russian made" planes!

So sad what this people have become.

 


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