149 dead in plane crash at Madrid airport

149 dead in plane crash at Madrid airport

149 dead after plane crashes on takeoff at Madrid's airport

HAROLD HECKLE
AP News

Aug 20, 2008 12:32 EST


A Spanish airliner bound for the Canary Islands crashed, burned and broke into pieces Wednesday while trying to take off from Madrid's Barajas airport, killing 149 people on board, officials said.

There were only 26 survivors in the mid-afternoon crash, a Spanish emergency official said.

A police officer said the bodies were so hot that police could barely touch them and told El Pais newspaper the shattered wreckage bore no resemblance to a plane.

Dozens of ambulances rushed to the site as columns of smoke billowed from the wreckage. The prime minister broke off his vacation in southern Spain and rushed back to Madrid, heading straight for the airport.

"I have never seen anything like this in my life," ambulance driver Luis Ferreras was quoted as saying by El Pais.

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