Relatives seek to identify Spain crash victims

By Martin Roberts

MADRID (Reuters) - Grieving relatives on Thursday tried to identify charred bodies from the wreckage of a Spanish jet which crashed at Madrid airport on its second attempt at takeoff after mechanical problems.

Airline officials declined to comment on possible causes for Wednesday's crash in which 153 people were killed, but said Spanair Flight JK5022 had earlier been delayed due to a problem with the air intake heating system before it attempted a second takeoff for its flight to Las Palmas in the Canary Islands.

"They supposedly fixed the problem which the pilot later said was with the air conditioning and then we took off," survivor Ligia Palomino told Ser radio.

"The plane was wobbling from one side to another. Then I began to suspect we would crash. I don't know what happened next. I was in a sort of river and saw people, smoke, explosions -- which I think woke me up."

Rescue workers said the only passengers to survive Spain's worst aviation disaster since 1983 were those who fell into a stream and avoided severe burns.

The government said only 19 people of the 166 passengers and six crew aboard survived the MD-82 jet crash. The airline listed 157 passengers and 10 unnamed crew. A Spanair spokesman could not account for the discrepancy in numbers.

Firefighter Francisco Martinez told Reuters that a wheel on his fire engine had caught fire in the extreme heat given off by the plane's wreckage as he tried to rescue survivors.

"I took a child into the truck and he thought he was in a film. But he asked 'When will this film end?' and 'Where is my Dad?'. He asked if it was real, if he was in a film, but he wanted the film to end," Martinez said.