Grim task of identifying the victims of air crash begins

Published on Thursday 21 August 2008 10:24

AUTHORITIES were today beginning the grim task of identifying 153 victims burned to death when a holiday jet crashed on take-off at Madrid.

Only 19 people survived yesterday's crash of the Spanair MD-82 aircraft heading for the Canary Islands, and some were in a critical condition.

The crash at Madrid's Barajas International Airport turned a wooded area off the end of a runway into a hellish scene of charred bodies and smouldering wreckage. It is Spain's worst air disaster in nearly 25 years.

Spanair said 20 of those aboard were children and two others were babies.

As smoke billowed from the wreckage, dozens of fire engines and ambulances rushed to help, lining a nearby road and filling a field next to a swath of charred vegetation. Helicopters flew overhead, dumping water on fires.

"The scene is devastating," said Pablo Albella, an emergency rescue worker. "The fuselage is destroyed. The plane burned. I have seen a kilometre of charred land."