More than one failure is likely to have caused the airliner crash in Madrid, according to Spain’s civil aviation chief.
Civil Aviation Director General Manuel Batista said the plane could not have crashed just because of trouble in one of the engines.
Mr Batista said engine failure alone would not be enough to bring the plane down as modern aircraft are designed to fly on just one engine in an emergency, and pilots practice for it. “I am not so sure that the engine failed,” he said.
In a report in the El Paisnewspaper today, a video taken by the Spanish airport authority AENA does not show any engine explosion while the Spanair MD-82 was taking off, contrary to some witness accounts.
The crash on Wednesday killed 153 of the 172 people on the plane bound for the Canary Islands. Only 59 bodies could be matched by their fingerprints, and DNA testing will be needed for the rest.
The airline, Spanair, said an air-intake fault that delayed the departure of the airliner was fixed before the plane tried to take off.
The pilot aborted a first attempt to depart after detecting a technical problem, but the difficulty was dealt with and "isolated" before the MD-82 aircraft attempted to leave Madrid's Barajas airport bound for the Canary Islands, said Javier Mendoza, head of operations at the carrier, a unit of Scandinavian airline SAS Group.
Spanair Chief Executive Officer Marcus Hedblom told reporters yesterday the airline would not comment on possible reasons for the crash.
The US National Transportation Safety Board will assist in the investigation, along with technicians from the European Union and McDonnell Douglas.
The plane was 15 years old and had an annual maintenance check on January 24th, Spanair commercial director Sergio Allard said.
Relatives of the victims today continued with the ordeal of identifying bodies. Many were burned beyond recognition, and forensic teams are taking DNA samples from relatives. Around 50 sets of remains have been identified.
An official funeral presided over by Madrid Archbishop Antonio Maria Rouco has been set for September 1st.
Agencies