MADRID, Spain — A gauge indicating that overheated air was entering a Spanair jetliner forced pilots to abandon a takeoff about an hour before the plane crashed in flames, but airline officials refused to speculate Thursday on the cause of the accident that killed 153 people.
As investigators tried to piece together what happened, relatives crushed by grief went to a makeshift morgue to identify loved ones. Officials said many of the bodies were burned beyond recognition.
One survivor told of the heaving, hellish final moments of the MD-82’s flight.
“The plane was rocking back and forth, until I suspected it was going to fall,” Ligia Palomino, a 41-year-old emergency rescue worker who happened to be on board, told Spain’s Cadena Ser radio station. “I saw people, smoke, explosions. I think that is what woke me up because I had lost consciousness.”
Palomino suffered leg injuries and a broken rib.
Many of the victims in Wednesday’s flight were families traveling to the Canary Islands, a Spanish beach resort off Africa’s West Coast. At least 22 of those on board were children, including two infants. Three youngsters were believed to be among the 19 survivors.
Development Minister Magdalena Alvarez said that 39 bodies had been identified and that the process could take days because forensic teams were using DNA to help make identifications.
Spanair gave new information about the plane’s initial attempt to take off. Spokesman Javier Mendoza said an air intake gauge under the cockpit had detected overheating while the jetliner was taxiing, causing the plane to turn back.
Technicians corrected the problem essentially by turning the gauge off.
Mendoza said that the device is not on a checklist of equipment that has to be functional for a plane to depart and that turning off such a device is an accepted procedure. The plane eventually was cleared by technicians but crashed on its second attempt to take off.
The company said it did not know whether the gauge problem had anything to do with the accident, but two aviation experts interviewed by The Associated Press said it was not likely that could bring down a modern plane.
