Madrid crash toll 92

Press, 9 December 1983, Page 6

Madrid crash toll 92

NZPA-Reuter Madrid The death toll from the collision of two Spanish airliners at Barajas Airport, Madrid, on Wednesday evening was put at 92 yesterday. A Rome-bound Boeing 727 of the Spanish national airline, Iberia, was taking off when a DC9 belonging to a domestic airline, Aviacion y Comercio, heading for Santander, crossed its path. The DC9’s fuel tanks exploded and fire broke out.

“It felt as though the plane split in two,” an Egyptian lawyer, one of the 42 final survivors on the Iberia plane, said. All those aboard the Aviaco plane were killed.

An airport worker who ran out of the terminal when he heard an explosion found one of the Iberia pilots stumbling from the wreckage, repeating: “It was my runway, it was my runway.” Scraps of the Aviaco plane, which was destroyed in the explosion, were scattered on the runway about 300 metres from the

charred hulk of the Iberia plane. Suitcases and bloodstained seats lay amid the wreckage. On November 27 a Boeing 747 of the Colombian national airline, Avianca, ploughed into the ground on its approach to Madrid airport, killing 181 of the 193 people aboard. Carlos Espinosa, chairman of Aviaco and Iberia, said that the airport had been open to traffic at the time of the crash on Wednesday and an official weather report had put visibility at 300 metres. The airport had been closed to incoming flights. The Iberia flight had been cleared for take-off and the Aviaco plane had been told to start its take-off approach. But eye-witnesses and passengers said that visibility had been much worse. “I was surprised planes were allowed to take off as you couldn’t see 30 to 40 metres away,” said an Italian priest, the Rev. Carlos Giamuzzi, another survivor.

“We felt the crash, the lights went out. and the fire started immediately,” he said.

Thomas Goltz, aged 39, a Madrid resident, and his wife, Sydney, aged 32, were seated in the back of the Iberia plane and survived the crash with minor bruises. Mr Goltz, manager of the Singer Company in Madrid, said that neither plane should have been allowed to leave the airport.

“It (the 727) was just about to take off when we heard this big crunching sound of metal. The plane sort of broke up in pieces and smoke started to fill the cabin,” he said.

“A crew member was struggling to get the back door open. I grabbed my wife and jumped out when the door was open and we ran. We found ourselves in a sort of field with the copilot and a badly burned man. We wandered around in the fog for about 15 minutes and finally were picked up by some people in a jeep.” Oknat Berkawitz, an

Israeli who was sitting on the left side of the Iberia plane in the front next to a door, said that she had heard an explosion, unbuckled her seatbelt, took several steps, and “found myself on the ground in the fog.” She had only a few scratches on her face and hands.

Three dazed Japanese couples on their honeymoons, sole survivors of the 40-strong Japanese tour group, were taken to a Madrid hotel by the Japanese Ambassador, Mr Eikichi Hayashiya, after receiving first-aid in a local hospital. The dense fog hampered rescue work at the airport. The wreckage, scattered only about 400 metres from the terminal, could not be seen from the building.

Police and rescue workers who searched for victims from the Aviaco plane poked through the steaming rubble of what had been the DC9, gently picking up pieces of bodies and wrapping them in grey plaid blankets. The South African pianist,

Marc Raubenheimer, was among the victims. Raubenheimer had been aboard the DC9.

In 1982 he won first prize in the international Paloma O’Shea piano competition held every year in the northern Spanish town of Santander.

Mr Espinosa said that an inquiry into the crash would be set up immediately because the “black box” flight recorders of the planes had been found, but first indications were that the Aviaco pilot had turned on to the wrong runway.

Spanish pilots, speaking on Spanish television news, criticised runway signalling and markings at Barajas airport. But the Transport Minister, Mr Enrique Baron, told a news conference that the airport was safe and that was recognised by international aviation bodies.

“Although these accidents are very regrettable, the airport at Barajas is safe and Madrid is a city which has a large volume of international air traffic.”