Pilots on the plane that crashed in Madrid yesterday, killing 153 people, had reported a faulty valve on its first attempt to leave Madrid
airport, the flight's operator, Spanair, said today.
The jet was cleared for a second takeoff by technicians who had turned off the air intake gauge in accordance with standard procedure, a spokesman for
the airline said.
Source
Aw, nuts. I hope the families get a good explanation for this.
Unfortunately...
Spanair said that fault had been successfully fixed by turning off the valve. The company said it could not be the cause of the fire in the
plane's left engine which led to it crashing on the second attempted take-off.
Source
What do you guys think about the older MD-82 variants? Are they getting a little bit long in the tooth, or do you think they'll be around for a
while?
Personally, I'm surprised to see so many MD-80s still around at the local airports. I would have thought that jets such as Embraers or Bombardiers
would have been commissioned to replace them. But those are just my thoughts.
Again, I do hope the families find out exactly what happened.
[edit on 8/21/2008 by Darkpr0]
