Victims of Spanair crash remembered on 10th anniversary

Flowers were placed against the memorial statue, music played and poems read out.

Ministers who are now in charge of air travel-related issues – José Luis Ábalos, head of public works and infrastructure and Reyes Maroto, leader of industry, trade and tourism – attended the ceremomy along with head of the main opposition party, PP leader Pablo Casado.

Flight JK5022 from Madrid to Las Palmas de Gran Canaria crashed moments after take-off on August 20, 2008 when the engine caught fire for reasons that remain unclarified.

There were no survivors.

Among the 154 dead were holidaymakers from the Madrid area off to the Canary Islands for a week or two on the beach, people from Gran Canaria visiting or connecting via the capital on their way home, plus the pilot, co-pilot and entire cabin crew.

Just months after the crash, Spanair – one of the most-used airlines in Spain - went out of business completely.

The Association of Spanair Victims say they do not have any faith in the investigation commission set up a decade ago to look into the causes of the tragedy, and suspect cover-ups as they continue to be blocked from seeing paperwork.

Spain's new government, in power since early June this year, has pledged to keep the inquiry open and update the bereaved at every stage.

A technical error in the Take-Off Warning System (TOWS) was not picked up when it was signed off as 'flight-worthy' in its recent inspection, since this was not an essential requirement for MD-82 models.

It was an MD-82 craft which was involved in the Detroit air crash of 1987, also killing 154 people, and with another airline accident in Lanzarote in 2007.

The TOWS gives off warning signals to alert pilots of potentially hazardous errors in take-off configuration.

Before take-off, pilots have a long checklist to ensure the multiple on-board systems are properly set up and in operation, but human error can result in these being missed or wrongly configured, even where the flight officer scrupulously follows the list.

Now, all commercial airlines of more than 2.72 metric tonnes, or 6,000 lb, must have a TOWS installed which gives off loud alarms to the pilot during taxi and continue until the captain either aborts take-off or alters the configuration.

It normally sounds like a loud car-horn together with a recorded message explaining the set-up error.

If this was indeed the cause of the Spanair crash, in theory, the TOWS requirement means it should not happen again, although the risk is still there for aircraft lighter than 2.72 tonnes if the system is not in place, given that it is not compulsory.