Spanair Flight 5022, from Madrid-Barajas Airport to Gran Canaria Airport in Gran Canaria, Spain, crashed just after take off from runway 36L of Barajas Airport at 14:24 CEST (12:24 UTC) on 20 August 2008. The aircraft was a McDonnell Douglas MD-82, registration EC-HFP. It was the first fatal accident for Spanair (part of the SAS Group) in the 20-year history of the company, and the 14th fatal accident and 24th hull loss involving MD-80 series aircraft. The accident was the first fatal accident of any aeroplane featuring a full airline alliance special aircraft livery. It was the world's deadliest aviation accident in 2008 and Spain's deadliest in 25 years. 154 people died; six died en route to the hospital, one died overnight and one died in the hospital three days later. Only 18 people survived. When it occurred, it became the deadliest aviation disaster in Spain since the crash of Avianca Flight 011 in 1983. The accident weakened Spanair's image, which at the time was already negative among the public. The crash augmented financial difficulties at Spanair, which ceased operations on 27 January 2012.
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Famous quotes containing the word flight:
“It is marvelous indeed to watch on television the rings of Saturn close; and to speculate on what we may yet find at galaxy’s edge. But in the process, we have lost the human element; not to mention the high hope of those quaint days when flight would create “one world.” Instead of one world, we have “star wars,” and a future in which dumb dented human toys will drift mindlessly about the cosmos long after our small planet’s dead.”
—Gore Vidal (b. 1925)