04-04-2024This is streaming from CNN and a Spanish TV station. I can't tell from the video what's going on, but hope everyone is ok. Apparently, a plane skidded off the runway.
CNN.com Live
Update:
MADRID, Spain - An airliner bound for the Canary Islands swerved off the runway during takeoff from the Madrid airport Wednesday and caught fire, Spain's national airport authority said.
The Interior Ministry confirmed at least 45 deaths, but an emergency services source told Reuters that nearly 150 were killed. Nineteen of the 178 people on board were seriously injured, the ministry's office for the greater Madrid region said.
Thick, white smoke billowed from the scene at Barajas airport.
Spanair flight JK5022 was bound for Las Palmas in the Canary Islands, a popular vacation spot off West Africa, the company said.
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.
An official with the Madrid emergency rescue service SAMUR said crews were removing injured people and bodies from the plane.
"It is a certain catastrophe," a SAMUR official told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to give his name.
Twenty-one ambulances were sent to airport as well as three mobile units for psychological support, the Spanish Red Cross told msnbc.com.
Burn victims were being sent to Hospital de La Paz, according to the Red Cross.
At the airport, helicopters and fire trucks poured water on the plane, which ended up in a lower, wooded area at the end of the runway at Terminal 4.
Planes were allowed to land at the airport after the crash, but were not taking off, an airport spokesperson told msnbc.com
AIRLINEPILOT CENTRAL
