MADRID, Spain (AP) - A Spanish emergency rescue official says there are only 26 survivors after an airliner with 173 people aboard crashed on takeoff from Madrid's airport. The official with the SAMUR municipal rescue service gave the toll after touring the site of Wednesday's crash. The official told AP the rest of the people on the plane have been given up for dead. He spoke on condition of anonymity because of department rules that barred him from giving his name.
The Spanair jet was bound for the Canary Islands.
Spanish authorities say the jetliner swerved off the runway and caught fire during takeoff from the Madrid airport. Spanair flight JK5022 was bound for Las Palmas in the Canary Islands, a popular vacation spot off West Africa. Thick, white smoke rose above Barajas airport as helicopters and fire trucks dumped water on the plane, which ended up in a wooded area at the end of the runway. An official with the Madrid emergency rescue service SAMUR says crews were removing injured people and bodies from the MD-80, calling it a "catastrophe."
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