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The worst nightmare of many travelers happened again this week, with a plane crash killing 153 people, the vast majority of them tourists and holidaymakers.
Spanair Flight JK5022 Crashes
The Spanair Flight JK5022 from Madrid to Gran Canaria, a vacation island popular with Europeans almost took off at its scheduled time of 1.00pm, but the airplane returned from the runway telling passengers there were some technical troubles to be resolved. Satisfied that there was no danger, the plane then returned to take off about an hour and a half later but very soon after leaving the ground, the left engine appeared to catch fire and the plane crashed. The resulting fire meant that most of the passengers were unable to survive the incident.
What Really Happened on the Madrid - Gran Canaria Flight?
Like many airplane crashes, it takes time to piece together the real story of what occurred, and this incident is no exception. Even the cause of the inital troubles, which caused the pilots to abort the first take off attempt, is disputed across different media outlets. While most agree that there was a “red light alert”, there are different theories on exactly what the alert referred to. Some say it was a problem with a temperature gauge, while others cite a problem with the air intake system. Some say the problems were resolved, while others say that equipment or gauges were simply “turned off” because they were non-essential and not dangerous.
There has also been discussion about pilot decision making processes during the second take off. Witnesses and the few survivors say that the plane dipped from side to side before it finally crashed, and some say that this is a sign that the pilots were trying to take off without having gained enough speed, and a different quick-thinking pilot action could have prevented or at least improved the outcome of the crash.
What Does this Mean for Spanair?
Spanair is actually a subsidiary of SAS (Scandinavian Airline Systems), although since mid-2007 SAS have been trying to sell their interest. Before the crash, there was already discussion of a financial crisis for Spanair, and since the crash, there has been criticism that the planes they are using could be too old to be as safe as possible. There was also a very recent threat by Spanair’s pilots to strike. All these factors, combined with the fatal crash, mean that the future of Spanair is looking fairly bleak.
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