A Spanair MD-80 aircraft suffered a disaster in Madrid Barajas airport when it caught fire and crashed just after take off. The aircraft was bound for Gran Canaria, a popular holiday destination, as flight JK 5022. There were some 170 passengers on board the MD-80, 150 passengers lost their lives. It caught fire on the engines, the MD-80 has two engines mounted on the tail.
Spanair, a Spanish airline based in Palma de Mallorca, was founded in the late 1980's and it flies to several destinations in Spain and some other holiday destinations. It is a member of the Star Alliance and it operates a fleet of Airbus A320/A321, Boeing 717 and Mc Donnell Douglas MD-80 aircraft.
The MD-80 has maintained a decent safety record since it was introduced in the early 1980's, other major disasters of this aircraft as far as I can remember are a Northwest aircraft which crashed in Detroit in 1987, an Alaska Airlines jet which crashed in the Pacific Ocean in 2000 and another MD-80 which crashed in Latin America (can't remember what airline it was) in 2005. The MD-80 is out of production since the year 2000 but many of them are still in service and will be for the years to come. American Airlines, the largest operator of the type, grounded its whole fleet of MD-80's for safety inspection, electrical wiring check on each aircraft, earlier this year 2008. Hundreds of flights were canceled and it caused many rescheduling tasks for thousands of passengers. The aircraft have returned to the skies and operate as scheduled on their respective flights . It is a pleasant experience to fly on one, especially if you are seated up front of the aircraft, because you barely hear any noise even when the engines are at full power during take off.
