Spain

Spanair crash report released

Friday 10 October 2008

A report on August's deadly Spanair jet crash in Madrid was released on Thursday, citing defective wing flaps as the main cause of the accident. The text differs from a pre-report finding that laid heavier blame on the airline's safety procedures.

A report released Thursday into the Spanair jet crash that killed 154 people in Madrid said the wing flaps were not properly extended on takeoff and an alarm failed to alert the pilots to the problem.
  
The MD-82, on a flight to the Canary Islands, crashed moments after lifting off from Madrid airport on August 20.
  
"Throughout the whole period from when the engines were switched on in the parking position and until the end of the (black box) recording, the angle of the flaps was zero degrees," the preliminary report said.
  
The wing flaps are supposed to be extended during takeoff.
  
The plane managed to climb 12 metres (40 feet) and then tilted slightly to the left and then hard to the right before hitting the ground tail-first, the report said.
  
Only 18 of the 172 people aboard the aircraft survived Spain's deadliest air accident in 25 years.
  
"Throughout the takeoff approach and until the end of the (black box) recording, there was no sound from the alarm system indicating an inappropriate setting for takeoff," said the report by Spain's CIAIAC air accident investigation committee.
  
It said that contrary to early reports from witnesses, both "engines functioned normally throughout the period of the accident."
  
The inquiry is continuing and "exhaustive analyses" will be necessary to reached definitive conclusions on the accident, the CIAIAC said.
  
The report confirmed a pre-report, extracts of which were published in Spanish newspapers last month and a copy of which was obtained by AFP.
  
The pre-report had said the crash could have been avoided if the airline had followed the recommendations of the Boeing Corporation, which owns McDonnell Douglas, issued after an accident involving the same type of aircraft in Detroit, Michigan, in 1987.
  
"The (Spanair) service manual in use at the time of the accident calls for this check before the first flight of the day and on stops between flights, unless at least one of the two pilots remains on duty," said the pre-report.
  
Boeing's more stringent recommendation is that the check be carried out "before every flight, without exception."
  
However, this section was erased from the version released on Thursday.
  
Spanair at the time had said the leaked extracts contained "imprecisions."
  
The airline's director of operations, Javier Muela, said Boeing made the recommendation one year before Spanair, a unit of Scandinavian carrier SAS, was set up in 1988 and it was not informed by the planemaker of the need to verify the alarm.