Wrong Turn

Two jets collide in Madrid fog

The Iberia 727 carrying 84 passengers and nine crew members was roaring down the foggy runway at Madrid's Barajas Airport, taking off on a flight to Rome. Suddenly Captain Carlos Lopez Barranco glimpsed another plane rolling toward him on the runway. Desperately, he swerved right, but the left wing and a portion of the 727's fuselage slammed into the approaching Aviaco Airlines DC-9, which was taxiing out for a flight to the northern Spanish city of Santander.

The DC-9 exploded, killing all 37 passengers and five crew members. In flames, the 727 skidded 500 yards down the runway before coming to a stop. Passengers, many severely wounded, tumbled out. But for nearly 20 minutes, as the injured screamed for help, rescue teams and fire-fighting crews searched through the thick fog; they were eventually led to the scene of the accident by a survivor. Said Israeli Passenger Osant Berkowich, 32: "I could hear people shouting, 'Let me out, let me out.' It was horrible." The toll: 93 dead, 30 injured.

It was the second airline disaster at Barajas in ten days. Late last month an Avianca 747 crashed on final approach, killing 181 people. As rescue workers once again converged on the airport last week to gather burned and mutilated bod ies, King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia cut short a private visit to the U.S.

to return to Spain after hearing of the accident.

An investigation into the spectacular collision is still under way, but preliminary findings suggest that in the 'heavy fog the captain of the DC-9 missed the first right turn he should have taken after leaving the apron. Instead, he took the second right, onto the active runway and into the path of the Iberia 727.

Since the fog had closed the airport to incoming flights, Spaniards are now asking why it was not also closed for departures.

The disaster has called attention to what many airline pilots regard as a critical safety deficiency at the airport. Although Madrid handles some 11 million passengers annually, it lacks the ground control radar system common at other major airports. The radar, which allows controllers to keep track of plane movements on the Tarmac even in zero visibility, might have averted last week's tragedy. This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.