Spanish authorities have recovered the engines of the Spanair MD-82 that crashed on takeoff last week and will disassemble them "screw by screw" to try to determine whether a thrust problem contributed to the accident, the head of the crash investigation said yesterday.
Francisco Soto, secretary of the Commission for Investigating Civil Aviation Accidents and Incidents, briefed media for the first time on the inquiry, revealing that officials have determined that the aircraft hit the Madrid Barajas runway "tail first" after a brief ascent and then bounced at least twice more as it travelled about 1,200 m. from the initial point of impact (ATWOnline, Aug. 26). He declined to speculate on possible causes and would not comment on Spanish press reports that one of the Pratt & Whitney JT8D-219's thrust reversers was deployed.
Soto acknowledged that a number of the 18 survivors testified that the aircraft appeared to be moving slowly down the runway prior to takeoff. He said a careful autopsy of the engines should yield answers. "We need to assess whether [the engines] had any bearing on the lack of power suggested by the survivors," he said.
He said the recovered but damaged flight data and cockpit voice recorders were sent to the UK for examination, citing British authorities' expertise on working "with damaged black boxes." He added, "We are now trying to improve the conditions of the pilots' recordings." A preliminary report on the investigation will be produced within a month, he said.