Spanish authorities identify victims of Madrid plane crash

Madrid: Spain's interior minister on Monday said that 86 of the 154 people killed in last week's plane crash in Madrid have been identified and most of the remaining cases should be resolved in a matter of days.

"We are working day and night," Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba told Cadena Ser radio.

Many of the bodies of the victims of Wednesday's crash of a Spanair MD-82 were burned beyond recognition and forensic teams are using DNA samples to identify them.

The minister said the process is taking longer than expected because of the poor condition of some sets of remains and difficulty in obtaining DNA samples from relatives of foreigners who died in the disaster. One of the victims was a foreign child adopted from a different country.

Because of these problems, the minister said he could not guarantee that every body will be identified.

Rubalcaba said the identification process is being carried out meticulously, addressing fears of some families that errors might be committed.

This is an issue in Spain because in May 2003, 62 Spanish peacekeepers returning home from Afghanistan died when their Russian-built YAK-42 plane crashed in Turkey and mistakes were made in identifying many of the bodies. Some families were given the wrong remains.

The newspaper El Pais, quoting sources close to the crash investigation, said it is focusing on the possibility that the Spanair jet lacked proper engine power as it tried to take off. The plane struggled to get airborne, veered to the right and crashed, burning and largely disintegrating.

El Pais said airport video of the takeoff shows that the plane used up much more of the runway than it normally should as it tried to take off for the Canary Islands, which suggested insufficient thrust.

The Development Ministry, which handles civil aviation in Spain, did not return a call seeking comment on the newspaper report.

One of the 18 survivors of the crash, Colombian-born Spaniard Ligia Palomino Riveros, told The Associated Press over the weekend that the plane struggled to pick up speed on the runway and was still flying very low when its right wing dipped. The plane then started "wobbling" and it plunged to the ground, she said.