Het vliegtuigneerstorting van Madrid: Unie van de loods waarschuwde maanden vóór die beperkingen die passagiers plaatsen op risico
Door Marcus Morgan | Na de slechtste Spaanse luchttragedie in 25 jaar op Woensdag, zijn de ongevallenonderzoekers begonnen onderzoekend de schipbreuk van het vliegtuig dat bij Barajas van Madrid luchthaven verpletterde, die 153 passagiers doodt. Enkel 19 passagiers hebben neerstorting, 5 overleefd van wie in een kritieke voorwaarde, met horrific verwondingen zijn naar verluidt. De kapitein en de tweede piloot worden bevestigd onder de doden.
De vlucht JK5022 werd gebonden voor Las Palmas in de Canarische Eilanden, van de Afrikaanse kust van het Westen, en vervoerde meestal Spaanse en Duitse toeristen, evenals ingezetenen van nog eens 10 landen.
De getuigen zeiden de linkermotor die in vlammenseconden is gebarsten nadat het vliegtuig de grond verliet. Het kreeg een korte afstand in de lucht alvorens plotseling aan één kant van richting te veranderen en verdelend in de helft aan het eind van de baan. De overlevenden werden gegooid in de lucht en landden in een nabijgelegen stroom, die hen van wordt gebrand levend in de reusachtige vuurbol bewaarde die losbarstte.
Dozens noodsituatievoertuigen werden verhinderd de tot plaats onmiddellijk toegang te hebben omdat het gehele gebied in vlammen was. De situatie werd gemaakt slechter door het gebied van droog gras dat brand ving.
Één hulpdiensten bovengenoemde arbeider, „het is het dichtste ding aan Hel die ik heb gezien. Corpses kookten, brandde alles. Er waren verlaten niets die op een vliegtuig leek, was het in stukken. Het is een mirakel overleefd iedereen.“
Een bovengenoemde vrouw, „ik zag het opstijgen en het beklom aan ongeveer 200 meter toen de vlammen in de motor verschenen. Het verpletterde toen aan de grond en verdween uit het zicht in hol voorbij het eind van de baan.“
Ligia Palomino, 41, een arts met de de ziekenwagendienst van Madrid, werd gered door haar eigen collega's die aangezien zij haar behandelden huilden, omringd door lifeless organismen.
Zij rapporteerde, het „Vliegtuig verliet de poort voor start om 1.20 p.m. maar zich toen verontschuldigde proef en zei hij wegens een technisch probleem zou moeten terugkeren.“
Een „later uur, gingen wij opstijgen. Ik hoorde een afschuwelijk lawaai en het volgende ding dat ik me werd gegooid van de vliegtuigen heb herinnerd. I must have passed out but woke when there was a loud explosion.
“I could hardly move but lifted my head and saw other bodies around me. There was incredible heat and I heard people and children crying for help. I lifted my head and all I saw were scattered bodies.”
Distraught families of the victims have begun the ordeal of identifying burned body parts, which have been taken to a Madrid congress centre. Only 39 of the 153 bodies have been formally identified.
The crash is the deadliest in Spain since 1983, when a Boeing 747 crashed in Madrid, killing 181 people.
The flight operator Spanair said that the plane had been taxiing for take-off when the pilot Antonio Luna reported an air-valve, which regulates pressure in the engine, had overheated. The plane was then diverted to a maintenance shed for about an hour.
Passengers were warned they could have to disembark and change planes, but they were kept onboard, despite reports that some passengers asked to leave the aircraft.
One woman said her husband had been forced to stay on the flight. The unidentified woman told Spanish media that her husband had texted her almost two hours before the incident saying, “My love, there’s a problem with the plane.”
When she suggested he get off, he replied, “They won’t let me off.”
Company technicians turned off the gauge, and the plane was then cleared for take-off. Spanair said this was done in compliance with standard procedure. According to one report, the plane was seen coming out of the maintenance shed just moments before its second attempt.
At this early stage, it is unclear whether the reported defect was a factor in the tragedy. Javier Mendoza, Spanair’s deputy director, declined to comment on whether the problems that led to the initial take-off being aborted could have played a role in the crash.
Javier Fernandez Garcia, the flight coordinator at Barajas airport, told a Spanish newspaper that unspecified problems had kept the aircraft grounded on two previous occasions.
It was also disclosed that a sister plane of the one that crashed in Madrid had to make an emergency landing only a week ago after suffering suspected engine problems. That plane diverted to an airport in Gran Canaria after losing power in mid-air.
Public concern is mounting amid suggestions Spanair opted to fly despite detecting problems. “I’d kill the bastard who did this” was a typical reaction from a driver outside a makeshift morgue.
Amid this growing controversy the official investigation by Spanish authorities has begun. The two black box flight recorders have been recovered, though one is partially damaged. These contain the crucial dialogue between the pilots and air traffic control as well as all the telemetry data of the aircraft instruments. Footage taken by the Spanish civil air authority AENEAS is also being examined.
Chris Yates, aviation analyst for Jane’s Information Group, says it could be some time before definitive answers can be found.
Speaking on the BBC website, he said, “Such engine fires are extremely rare, but when they do occur they are, invariably, the result of some form of mechanical failure.”
Analysing the data and wreckage from the site is a long process, typically taking months to reach a conclusion.
Kieran Daly, the editor of Flight International, said it would be premature to speculate on the cause of the accident, but in the absence of dangerous weather conditions, a likely source of the problem could be inferred.
“Accidents on takeoff are relatively rare,” he said. “The obvious suspicion is some kind of engine problem. The suspicion is that for whatever reason the aircraft had insufficient power to pull away.”
The McDonnell Douglas MD-82, generally considered by industry experts to be a reliable though ageing workhorse, has a very low rate of accidents and incidents. Since coming into service in 1981, the MD-80 series has been involved in 11 serious crashes in a history of 20 million flights, making the plane one of the safest in the sky. It is commonly used on short trips around Europe.
Majorca-based Spanair, which has operated since 1988, is Spain’s second biggest airline. Spanair is owned by parent company Scandinavian Airlines Systems (SAS).
Like many airlines operating on increasingly thin profit margins, Spanair has been struggling with high fuel prices and tough competition during the economic slowdown.
It recently announced it was laying off up to 1,200 staff, more than a quarter of its workforce, and cutting routes after losing US$80 million in the first half of this year.
After a year of failing to attract any acceptable bids, SAS announced it would be forced to keep the subsidiary, which flies 371 daily departures between 36 airports, sending its share price tumbling.
SAS and Spanair executives appeared on national television to deny that safety had been sacrificed in its quest to cut costs, but the evidence produced so far is grounds for serious concern.
Just hours before the crash, Spanair’s pilots threatened to strike over plans by SAS to cut costs. Representatives of the pilots’ union, Sepla, said, “The organised chaos in which the company exists can’t continue.”
The pilots alleged that company bosses were forcing cockpit and maintenance staff to work abusively long hours, in order to compensate for “endemic problems” of organisation and structure.
These claims were backed up by a series of e-mails published by the Spanish newspaper El Mundo and republished in the Times of London on Friday. These revealed how, in the months before the fatal crash, airline workers had repeatedly warned management that passenger safety was being put at risk, and described the airline’s daily operations as a “disaster.”
It quoted from an April 2007 e-mail to Lars Nygaard, then Spanair chief executive, by a union representative. It had warned, “The lack of resources and their quality on the ground, the repeated AOGs [grounded planes] in the fleet, the scarcity of crews and the system of movement of crew members mean that the general feeling is one of operational chaos that places the passengers at risk.”
This was followed one month later by another letter from the union stating, “The operation continues to be a disaster and is getting worse by the day.”
The union also complained that the older planes were not being replaced fast enough. In January, the union wrote, “The MD fleet has not been renewed in favour of A320s in the agreed timeframe.”
It is not known how management responded to the concerns.
Have Your Say: Madrid plane crash: Pilot’s union warned months before that cut-backs placing passengers at risk
Please read our posting guidelines before posting.
Alternatively you can discuss this report here.
This entry was posted on Sunday, August 24th, 2008 at 3:46 pm and is filed under Contributions & Guests . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Translations
Loading ...Related News
- Hydrogen plane runs for three days without refuelling
- BA jet crash lands at Heathrow
- White House press corps plane detained in China
- VIDEO: Rare Footage - Flight 93 crashes
- CNN Pulls 9/11 E4B ‘Doomsday’ Plane Video?
Email This Page To A Friend
Latest Headlines
- Ron Paul: How Foreign Policy Affects Gas Prices
- US attacks China’s human rights record
- Doctors say ex-Bangladesh PM’s son crippled by torture
- Calls to drop ID card plans after prisoner data blunder
- MI5 report challenges views on terrorism in Britain
- Obama - Biden ’08
- Madrid plane crash: Pilot’s union warned months before that cut-backs placing passengers at risk
- McCain’s Plan to Privatise Veterans’ Health Care
- Identity Politics in Climate Change Hell
- Pentagon’s intelligence arm steps up lie detecting
More Breaking News
Archive
