In these articles I discuss some of the worst air disasters from the beginning of this century to the present day, from Human error to fatal failures.
Spanair Disaster
Source (Image actual plane)(EC-HFP)
- Occurred: 20th August 2008, 14:45(CEST) | 12:45(GMT)
- Killed: 154
- Aircraft: McDonnell Douglas MD-82
- Impact: R36L (Dep Airport)
- Airline: Spanair
- Flight #: 5022
- Dep/Arr: Barajas, MADRID / Gran Canaria, SPAIN
- Cause: Unknown (Investigating)
It was a warm afternoon on 20th of August 2008 at Barajas Airport in Madrid, Spain. Spanair Flight 5022 was taxiing to Runway 36L to depart to Gran Canaria Airport. The plane, a MD-82 (Small Civil Jet) was full of vacationers on their way for a lovely holiday or just returning home from Madrid.
Source
Flight 5022 was ready for takeoff, moments earlier the pilot held back on departure due to a issue, ground crews had disabled a pressure gauge showing abnormal readings in the airtake system of the airplane therefore delaying departure by one hour. After this was disabled, the plane like all others began to take off; as the plane left the ground at around 130 knots (239kph/149mph). As it was ascending moments after leaving the runway it could not keep to an adequate speed to maintain ascent and crashed in vicinity of the runway. The plane reportedly split in two and rumbled with numerous explosions.
154 people lost their lives. Six on the way to hospital and 2 to follow. This was the worst air disaster for Spain in 25 years. The MD-82 has always been a good 'work-horse' airplane, used for short commutes, it has 2 JT8D-217 which produce 20,000Lbs of thrust. The MD-82 was first flown in 1979 and had been produced for 20 years until 1999. Over 1100 units were built and are still (off-course) used today by airline like Delta, American Airline, SAS (Parent of Spanair).
This disaster is still under investigation by the FAA. Investigators do not suspect the abnormal airtake gauge to be blamed for the disaster. Some possible factors have arrived, it was thought that engine number 2's reverse thruster engaged during the climb, this was due to it was found deployed in the wreckage.
