A failure in the cockpit alert system contributed to the crash of a Spanair jet at Madrid airport last month which killed 154 people, El Pais newspaper reported today, citing preliminary investigation results.
The alert system failed to warn pilots that wing flaps had not extended correctly as the McDonell Douglas jet accelerated along the runway on August 20, the report said, according to
El Pais, which said the plane also had overheating in a temperature gauge.
Spanair, owned by Scandinavia's SAS, had no comment on the report. The crash, the worst in Spain in 25 years, came as the airline had already announced it was laying off a third of its workforce due to fierce competition and high fuel prices.
Interior minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba said the government would make no comment on the investigation until an investigating committee had completed its findings.
"In my experience, an accident doesn't happen for a single reason," Rubalcaba told Telecinco television.
"We are going to wait for the report to be finished to find out what happened because there are many theories."
Information from the black box data recorder indicated that the jet had risen just 40 feet (12 metres) when an automated voice in the cabin warned "stall, stall" before the tail struck the runway and the plane crashed into a ditch,
El Paissaid.
The MD-82 jet arrived in Madrid's new Terminal 4 from Barcelona at 10:13 and was preparing to fly on to Las Palmas in the Canary Islands at 13:06 when the pilots informed the flight tower of a "small problem" and taxied back to hangar.
Technicians found overheating in a gauge and removed a fuse from the circuit. After temperature returned to normal the plane taxied back to the runway.
Reuters