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Spanish Air Crash Kills At Least 150

By J. P. Anderson

A passenger plane has crashed on take-off at Madrid's Barajas airport, killing at least 45 people and seriously injuring 19.

However, a source for the emergency services reported about 150 fatalities, saying: "They are pulling out burnt corpses. The plane has been completely destroyed."

The national government's office in Madrid said at least 19 people are seriously hurt while 35 were unharmed. Dozens of emergency vehicles are at the scene.

A large cloud of smoke billowed at Terminal Four from the remains of flight JK5022's MD82 jet for Las Palmas in the Canary Islands.

There were 166 passengers and six crew onboard, according to Scandianvian airline SAS, which owns Spanair and has been trying to sell it since last year.

SAS said: "The aircraft, an MD-82, was en route from Madrid to Las Palmas when the accident occurred, at 14:23 hours local time. We can confirm that there were 166 passengers and six crew onboard."

Dozens of shocked relatives began arriving at Las Palmas airport on the island of Gran Canaria, where they were whisked into a room away from the press and comforted by Red Cross psychiatrists.

There was no immediate official comment on the cause of the accident but the newspaper El Mundo quoted a source on its website as saying the plane's left engine had caught fire.

1. UPDATE:

A passenger plane has crashed on take-off at Madrid's Barajas airport, killing at least 100 people.

However, a source for the emergency services believes there are around 150 fatalities, saying: "They are pulling out burnt corpses. The plane has been completely destroyed."

Earlier, the national government's office in Madrid said at least 45 people had been killed and 19 seriously hurt while 35 were unharmed.

Dozens of emergency vehicles are at the scene and a large cloud of smoke billowed at Terminal Four from the remains of flight JK5022's MD82 jet for Las Palmas in the Canary Islands.

There were 166 passengers and six crew onboard, according to Scandianvian airline SAS, which owns Spanair and has been trying to sell it since last year.

SAS said: "The aircraft, an MD-82, was en route from Madrid to Las Palmas when the accident occurred, at 14:23 hour’s local time. We can confirm that there were 166 passengers and six crew onboard."

Dozens of shocked relatives began arriving at Las Palmas airport on the island of Gran Canaria, where they were whisked into a room away from the press and comforted by Red Cross psychiatrists.

There was no immediate official comment on the cause of the accident but the newspaper El Mundo quoted a source on its website as saying the plane's left engine had caught fire.

Spanair has issued a contact number for concerned relatives - 00 34 800 400 200.

UPDATE 2:

Only 23 people have escaped alive after a plane carrying 173 people burst into flames shortly after taking off from Madrid's airport, a rescue official has said.

There are fears that the remaining 147 on board may have perished inside the fuselage after it landed burning off the side of a runway at Barajas airport.

The extent of the tragedy was described by a worker of airport owner AENA who witnessed the disaster.

"The plane was totally broken apart, it was all full of bodies," the worker told El Pais newspaper.

Two civil guards returning from the scene of the stricken aircraft told the same newspaper: "It doesn't look anything like a plane - it's horrific - everything is burnt.

"It's the closest to hell that I've seen. The bodies were boiling, we burnt ourselves collecting them."

Firefighters have now put out the flames after a column of smoke was seen rising over the Barajas airport.

Reports say the accident happened as the craft was taking off from the airport's Terminal Four, bound for Gran Canaria.

Witnesses said the plane's left engine caught fire during take-off, causing the aircraft to crash to the ground and break into two parts.

El Pais reported that the disaster occurred during a second attempt at take off.

An earlier attempt had to be averted after technical issues, which resulted in an inspection of the plane.

There were 173 people on board the Spanair MD-82 plane, 164 passengers and nine crew members.

Spanair Flight JK-5022 was bound for Las Palmas in the Canary Islands, a resort off West Africa, the company said.

The plane was a shared-code flight with Lufthansa's LH-255, it added.

Local journalist Bill Bond said Spanair was a major Spanish airline that has been running for 20 years.

"It flies throughout Spain and internationally and has a good accident record," he said.

However, the MD-80 series does not have a great safety record.

Aviation expert Professor Joseph Lampel has told Sky News: "It appears at the moment to have been some sort of engine problem.

"It's rare, but not unheard of. The focus will now be on engine maintenance."

Malcolm Ginsberg, editor of Air and Business Travel, said: "It appears to have been a normal sort of day, so I can only imagine there must have been some sort of mechanical problem."

UPDATE 3:

Only 23 people have escaped alive after a plane carrying 173 people burst into flames shortly after taking off from Madrid's airport, a rescue official has said.

There are fears that the remaining 150 on board may have perished inside the fuselage after it landed burning off the side of a runway at Barajas airport.

The extent of the tragedy was described by a worker of airport owner AENA who witnessed the disaster.

"The plane was totally broken apart, it was all full of bodies," the worker told El Pais newspaper.

Two civil guards returning from the scene of the stricken aircraft told the same newspaper: "It doesn't look anything like a plane - it's horrific - everything is burnt.

"It's the closest to hell that I've seen. The bodies were boiling, we burnt ourselves collecting them."

Firefighters have now put out the flames after a column of smoke was seen rising over the Barajas airport.

Reports say the accident happened as the craft was taking off from the airport's Terminal Four, bound for Gran Canaria.

Witnesses said the plane's left engine caught fire during take-off, causing the aircraft to crash to the ground and break into two parts.

El Pais reported that the disaster occurred during a second attempt at take off.

An earlier attempt had to be averted after technical issues, which resulted in an inspection of the plane.

There were 173 people on board the Spanair MD-82 plane, 164 passengers and nine crew members.

Spanair Flight JK-5022 was bound for Las Palmas in the Canary Islands, a resort off West Africa, the company said.

The plane was a shared-code flight with Lufthansa's LH-255, it added.

The names of the passengers and crew on board the aircraft will not be released until all next-of-kin has been notified.

A special help-line number has been established for relatives and friends seeking information about those who may have been on board. The number is +34 800 400 200.

Local journalist Bill Bond said Spanair was a major Spanish airline that has been running for 20 years.

"It flies throughout Spain and internationally and has a good accident record," he said.

However, the MD-80 series does not have a great safety record.

Aviation expert Professor Joseph Lampel has told Sky News: "It appears at the moment to have been some sort of engine problem.

"It's rare, but not unheard of. The focus will now be on engine maintenance."

Malcolm Ginsberg, editor of Air and Business Travel, said: "It appears to have been a normal sort of day, so I can only imagine there must have been some sort of mechanical problem."

Madrid air crash kills up to 150

UPDATE 4:

A passenger airliner heading to Gran Canaria has crashed on take-off at Madrid's Barajas airport, killing up to 150 people.

Just 28 people are believed to have survived, with many in a critical condition, after the Spanair plane skidded off the runway with around 175 passengers and crew onboard.

Earlier, an emergency services spokesman said: "They are pulling out burnt corpses. The plane has been completely destroyed."

Scandianvian airline SAS, which owns Spanair, said: "The aircraft, an MD-82, was en route from Madrid to Las Palmas (in the Canary Islands) when the accident occurred at 14:23 hours local time. We can confirm that there were 166 passengers and six crew onboard."

An emergency services spokesman told national radio: "The (plane's) tail has broken off from the rest of the fuselage. It's difficult to describe the scene, because it's just a mess of metal."

Dozens of emergency vehicles attended the scene from where a large cloud of smoke billowed from the remains of flight JK5022.

There was no immediate official comment on the cause of the accident but the newspaper El Mundo quoted a source on its website as saying the plane's left engine had caught fire and that the plane had twice attempted take-off.

Police escorted tearful relatives of passengers past reporters while dozens of workers identified as psychologists and social workers arrived at the terminal.

Shocked relatives also began arriving at Las Palmas airport where they were taken into a room and offered counselling by Red Cross psychiatrists.

Spanair has issued a contact number for concerned relatives - 00 34 800 400 200.

UPDATES LATER:

Vulnerable People Denied Home Accessibility Grants

By J. P. Anderson

DISABLED and elderly people are being denied grants to make their homes more accessible, according to the opposition who described it as a “national disgrace”.
Fine Gael said deputies have been contacted by a number of older people who have already been approved for a grant but were informed in recent days they will not receive it.
Front bench spokesman Billy Timmins said local councils have also stopped taking applications under the Housing Adaptation Scheme due to budget shortages.

The scheme is granted when people need to make alterations to their homes to make them suitable for their needs — such as making them wheelchair accessible or building downstairs bathrooms.
Mr Timmins said: “People who were approved for a grant scheme have been informed in recent days they cannot go ahead with their proposed work.”
A spokesman for the Department of the Environment said: “There is no funding shortfall. The €71.4 million we gave this year exceeds last year’s allocation by almost €100,000.”
He said requests for additional funding for the operation of the scheme by any local authority “will be dealt with in the light of any savings emerging later in the year in other local authority areas.”
Mr Timmins said this means that “cash-starved local authorities can only get more cash to pay for these schemes if other local authorities do not spend all of their allocation. With massive waiting lists this is highly unlikely”.
In the first three months of this year local authorities received 6,220 applications for grant assistance for elderly and disabled homeowners. It is not known how many of these have been told they will not get their money.
Dublin City Council said the 323 applicants in its area “have not been affected by the cutbacks and will get their promised grants”.
Mr Timmins said: “The people who avail of these grants are the most vulnerable in Irish society and should not be made to pay for the economic mismanagement of this Government.
“These grants are generally used for essential repairs to prevent structural damage. I am calling on the Minister for the Environment to search deep to properly fund the essential upgrades that these people so desperately need,” he said.

Clondalkin: €200k of Heroin Seized Man Held

By J. P. Anderson

A 20-year-old man has been arrested after heroin with an estimated street value of €200,000 was found in Dublin.

A search of a house in Mark's Grove in Clondalkin was carried out at around 9pm last night.

During the search cocaine, together with drugs paraphernalia were found.

The man is being held at Ronanstown Garda Station.

For Ronnie’s Farewell

By J. P. Anderson

THEY’RE preparing for a packed house for one last session when Ronnie Drew is buried today.
The Church of the Holy Rosary in his adopted home of Greystones, Co Wicklow, can’t cater for the Christmas crowds, let alone a farewell to a legend, so an overflow facility is being set up in the adjacent parish centre with a big screen to relay the proceedings.
But one group of men are sure of space to say their goodbyes. An area is being kept clear at the top of the church for the last surviving members of the Dubliners to give Ronnie a send-off in the best way they know how.

Already many have paid their respects to the original Dubliner, who died on Saturday aged 73 after a battle with cancer. A steady stream of mourners, many from the world of Irish music, filed into his home yesterday to join his family in the traditional wake.
Some, including Paul Brady, Shay Healy and Phil Coulter, were clearly emotional, as they emerged from the gathering.
A tearful Brady thumped at his heart as he spoke briefly about the last time he worked with one of his music heroes on an album in recent years. “A whole era has come to an end,” he said. “One of the most original Irish balladeers has gone.”
Songwriter and broadcaster Shay Healy, a close friend of Drew’s for 40 years, was visibly upset as he recounted speaking with him on the telephone in recent weeks.
“He left an indelible mark on the [music] industry,” he said.
“He turned a lot of people on to Irish ballads; he reintroduced us to our own songs. I’m just glad to say he was my friend.”
Despite his rapidly declining health, Drew continued to show up at the gigs of his friends over the past weeks to show his support, said Healy.
He said the world-renowned singer and musician was one of the most generous men with his time and company that he knew.
“And that voice. It was unmistakable,” he said. “If you were at the North Pole and you heard that voice, you would say: that’s Ronnie Drew.”
President Mary McAleese and Taoiseach Brian Cowen will be represented at today’s funeral ceremony by their aides de camp.
Afterwards Drew will be laid to rest beside his wife Deirdre, who died last year, at Redford Cemetery in the town.

Against Police in Attack

By J. P. Anderson

Unionist and Sinn Féin politicians tonight demanded an end to dissident republican violence after confirmation the explosive Semtex was used in an attack on police in Co Fermanagh over the weekend.

The powerful Czech-made explosive was a main element of the Provisional IRA’s arsenal before the republican movement decommissioned its weapons in 2005.
But today politicians hit out after it was confirmed a weekend attack where three officers escaped serious injury was carried out by dissident republicans armed with an improvised rocket launcher using Semtex.
Deputy Chief Constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) Paul Leighton said the officers targeted at 11pm on Saturday night in the border town of Lisnaskea, County Fermanagh, were lucky to be alive.
“This was significant in that there was Semtex used, it didn’t go off but there was Semtex there,” he said.
“Where it has come from I do not know, it is similar to devices used in the province during the Troubles by other groups but when it passed over to dissident groups, how it came to be in their possession I don’t know at this point in time.”
Two officers were on patrol on Main Street, Lisnaskea, while a third was in a nearby police vehicle when a man stepped from a white Ford Escort and aimed an improvised rocket launcher at the officers.
They dived for cover and escaped after suffering shock and minor injuries when the device failed to detonate.
The Deputy Chief Constable said renegade republicans had been responsible for seven other murder attempts on police officers in the last year.
In June dissident republicans planted a 150lb landmine in a bid to murder police near the village of Roslea, also in Fermanagh.
Two officers lured to the area by a hoax phone call escaped death or serious injury when the bomb’s detonator failed to trigger the main device.
Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) Assembly member Peter Weir today called for action to end violence by dissident republican groupings.
“Tough action is called for now to eliminate these groups, who are clearly developing their capacity and technical ability to wage such attacks,” said Mr Weir.
“The police should be given the resources and the support they need to take the fight to the dissident Republican micro-groups, who I believe are held in widespread contempt on both sides of our community.”

Sinn Féin Fermanagh South Tyrone MP Michelle Gildernew said dissident republicans had no support.
“Those who carried out this attack have nothing to offer. They have little support and their actions will not advance Irish Unity one bit,” she said.
“Sinn Féin has a strategy for Irish Unity and we will not be deflected by these activities.
“Many within the republican nationalist community wonder just whose agenda these groups are operating to.”
The PSNI appealed for anyone with information on the Lisnaskea attack to come forward.
Mr Leighton said he did not know how the dissidents had obtained the Semtex, but said it was likely the improvised rocket launcher was an old weapon.
“I’m not responsible for decommissioning and I don’t know where the weaponry has come from but for me it looks as if it came from old stock, from an old type of device which we have seen before in the province many years ago,” he said.
“How and when it transferred hands I do not know. I believe it is Semtex which came into the province around the time the IRA got their supply of Semtex but how it transferred to this grouping I do not know.
“We knew that they had access to weaponry due to the passing across of personnel, so I am not surprised that they have access to it.”
The police chief said he did not believe dissidents had opened up a new Semtex supply chain.
“As far as I am aware it is the first time they have used Semtex,” he said.
“It does not appear to be new Semtex. So it does not raise a concern with me that they have a new supply of Semtex.”