SPAIN:THE SPANISH pilots' union sent a series of letters and e-mails to Spanair's senior management warning of safety worries more than a year before Wednesday's crash at Madrid airport claimed 153 lives, it emerged yesterday.
In one letter the union, Sepla, wrote to Lars Nygaard, then Spanair director, and Marcus Hedblom, present managing director, warning: "The operative chaos is putting passengers at risk."
The letter, dated April 2007, said: "It's our obligation to inform you of the elevated unease which exists between ourselves for the daily running [of the company] for the past month." It alluded to a lack of resources, a scarcity of ground crew and a number of aircraft which had been declared unfit to fly.
In another letter, pilots complained "unfortunately all this indicates this will end in chaos", and in a further letter the union warned: "The norms about operating punctuality, desired by all, stop in many cases the realisation of norms of airline security." Spanair did not respond to attempts by this reporter to verify the claims.
Meanwhile, a video of the crash yesterday suggested it was not caused by either of the plane's engines bursting into flames, as had first been thought.
The video shows Spanair flight JK 5022 take off and struggle to gain altitude, never rising higher than 50 metres, before it crashes to the ground. The plane then skids along the runway, breaks apart and bursts into flames.
The security video, taken by AENA, which runs Spain's airports, appears to contradict suggestions that an explosion or fire in one of the engines could have led to the crash at Barajas airport.
Manuel Bautista, director general of AENA, said the plane had suffered more than one fault. "The motor is not the cause of the accident," he said.
One of the investigators, Emilio Valerio, told the Cadena Ser radio station the video would be used to establish the cause of the tragedy.
A recently married couple who met in London were among those who lost their lives in the crash. Brazilian Ronaldo Gomes Silva, (25), and his Spanish wife, Yanina Celis Dibowsky (21), met when they were living in London and married last month in Brazil.
The groom's father, Juliao Alves da Silva, told Brazilian television: "I am destroyed. I have lost my son and a daughter-in-law."
Silva's brother Rodinaldo (27) has flown to Madrid to arrange for his body to be returned to Brazil.
Also killed was Siomara Hernandez (19), who was 12 weeks pregnant, along with her baby son Tanausu and 15-year-old sister Abenauara. They were flying back to the Canary Islands to celebrate news of her pregnancy.
A funeral Mass will be held for the victims in Madrid's Almudena Cathedral on September 1st. With at least 20 of the victims having come from the Canary Islands, authorities there were planning a large funeral in the coming days.
- (Guardian service)
