A Spanish jetliner was reported to have swerved off the runway in Madrid killing 153 passengers which is the worst disaster in nearly 25 years. The plane was said to be taking off for the Canary Islands vacation resort which turned into a hellish scene. There were only 19 people who survived the said crash and some in critical condition.

While many of the rescuers were still in disbelief, the whole incident was believed to be an accident. Dozens of black hearses arrived at the scene to bring the charred bodies to nearby morgues.

“The scene is devastating,” said Pablo Albella, an emergency rescue worker. “The fuselage is destroyed. The plane burned. I have seen a kilometer of charred land and few whole pieces of the fuselage. It is all destruction.”

Rescuers rushed the few survivors to hospitals, while emergency workers shrouded the dead in white sheets. One body lay on burned grass, an arm and a leg poking out.

Later, a long convoy of black hearses rolled onto the airport grounds to carry bodies to a makeshift morgue set up at Madrid’s main convention center. Flight departures resumed after several hours.

It was not immediately clear what went wrong. Alvarez said the jetliner had barely gotten airborne when it veered right, crashed and broke into pieces.

A spokesman for Spanair, a Spanish company wholly owned by Scandinavian Airlines, said it did not know what caused the accident. Alvarez, the government minister, said investigators ruled out foul play and considered the crash an accident.

Source

[tags]madrid, disaster, canary island, plane crash[/tags]