Spanair defends the decision to allow the defective M82 plane to take off on Wednesday
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By h.b. - Aug 22, 2008 - 12:43 AM
The first problem which prevented an earlier take off of the plane was isolated and could have nothing to do with the final cause of the tragedy.

Spainair has defended the decision to allow the second attempt at take off of the MD82 plane from Madrid which then crashed on Wednesday with the loss of 153 lives. They say an indicator showing a higher than normal temperature on an air intake was an ‘isolated’ matter and that a subsequent take off was ‘normal practice’.

Speaking at a press conference in Madrid, the General Deputy Director of Spanair, Javier Mendoza, gave the details of the decision which was taken, admitting that the fault was not totally repaired, but ‘isolated’ by the disconnection of a switch which supplied energy to the system. He refused to speculate on the causes of the accident saying that would only confuse matters.

The plane which finally crashed so tragically on Tuesday should have taken off at 1305 that afternoon, but a first take off was abandoned when the pilot detected ‘excessive heating in an air intake which supplied some of the plane’s systems’.

The President of the parent company SAS, Mat Jansson, declined to talk about how the tragedy would affect the already complicated economic situation for the company. Company sources say also that one of the black box flight recorders was damaged in the crash, and the investigation to determine the exact cause would last for months.

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