Madrid mourns as 153 die in Spanair crash
Two days ago, a Spanair plane heading to the Canary Islands swerved off the runway of Terminal 4 at Barajas International Airport, caught fire and blew up. 153 of the 173 died. I summarised the main elements of the story as a breaking-news item here.
Spanair is Spain's second largest national airline after Iberia.
Since then, Madrid is in shock. Zapatero made a few supportive and grief filled statements at the airport, and visited the survivers and the families of the dead at La Paz Hospital.
The news channels are showing constant updates on the event as more bodies are identified, and the whole nation is trying to analyse what went wrong on the flight -- how was this let to happen?
The flight was late to take-off as some technical issues were found. The only clarity of the accident's cause that we have uptil now is that the motor of the plane failed and caught fire. However, it seems that that couldn't be the only reason of such a catastrophy.
News like this shakes you up. I have flown Spanair a number of times, and have been planning a trip to the Canary Islands for a while now -- I could have been on that flight, so could have you.
One minute you are boarding a plane to go on vacation, the next minute your body is found dead and burnt. Makes you think about your life and how you are living it. When people quote me "life is short", as much as I agree, the optimist that I am, I like to believe that life is long too...but perhaps I'm wrong.
Until yesterday Spanair's website was constantly being updated with developments on the accident. Other than emergency contact numbers, a list of the passengers on board the flight, and timings for the next press conference, the page showed nothing else. Today, there's a condolence note at the top, but Spanair flights seem to be back to normal.
Life goes on, eh. So darn sad.