Spantax Flight 995

Spantax Flight 995 was a charter flight from Madrid-Barajas Airport to New York via Málaga Airport on September 13, 1982. When the DC-10 aircraft was rolling for take-off from Malaga, the pilot felt a strong and worsening vibration and aborted the take-off. The flight crew lost control of the aircraft and were unable to stop in the runway available and the aircraft overran the runway, hit an airfield aerial installation, losing an engine, then crossed the Malaga–Torremolinos Highway, hitting a number of vehicles before finally hitting a railway embankment and bursting into flames. An emergency evacuation of the aircraft was carried out but 50 on board died of both burns and other injuries. A further 110 people were hospitalized.

Aircraft
The Aircaft involved in the accident was a 5-year old McDonell Douglas DC-10-30CF. It was delivered to Overseas National Airways on June 6th 1977. The Aircraft was leased by Spantax in October 1978 and bought in December of that year. At the time of the accident the aircraft had racked up 15,364 flight hours.

Passengers
The aircraft was carrying 381 passengers and 13 crew in two cabins of service. Among the 381 passengers were mostly American tourists, who had booked a trip around the Spanish coast.

Crew
The captain was 55-year-old Juan Pérez, who had logged almost 16,129 flight hours (including 2,119 hours on the DC-10). The first officer was 33-year-old Carlos Ramírez, who had logged almost 6,489 flight hours, with 2,165 of them on the DC-10. The flight engineer was 33-year-old Teodoro Cabejas Barúque, who had logged 19,427 flight hours, including 2,116 on the DC-10.

Of the 13 crew members (including aircrew and cabin crew), all of them were Spanish citizens.

Accident
The Flight had begun in Palma de Mallorca earlier in the morning, and made a routine stopover at Madrid-Barajas Airport, before arriving in Málaga. The Aircraft was Almost at full weight, with every seat in the aircraft being booked. One additional Passenger was listed, although it was an infant. At 9:58:50 UTC, the Aircraft was cleared for take-off on Runway 14. Crew and Passengers reported Vibrations during take-off prior to V1, and the crew chose to continue V1. and after reaching VR, the nose was pulled, and the vibrations started to get worse. Immediately Captain Perez slammed the Aircraft’s nose Gear down and applied full reverse thrust and brakes. The aircraft overshot the runway, hitting an ILS facility and metal fence, passed over the M-21 Highway, striking a truck, and collided with a Farm building. The collision ripped off three quarters of the right wing and the right horizontal stabilizer. The Aircraft came to rest in a field about 450 m (1,475 feet) past the runway threshold. The initial impact killed 8 passengers. The evacuation was chaotic, as passengers rushed toward the exits of the Aircraft, many of them taking their bags and personal belongings with them. One Flight attendant tried to open door 4L in the rear left, but was overcome by smoke before she could open it. The right door was also jammed due to the deformation caused by the impact, so the rear section was evacuated through the doors 3L and 3R. Due to the slow evacuation, 42 people died of Smoke inhalation. Overall 110 people had sustained injuries, the truck driver on the highway received severe injuries.

Investigation
An investigation Team from the Spanish Comisión de Investigación de Accidentes e Incidentes de Aviación Civil (CIAIAC) and the American National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) was assembled to investigate the accident. The Flight recorders were retrieved and sent to the manufacturer Sundstrand in Charlotte, North Carolina.

The reconstructed data showed a power cutout for Engine Number 3 on the right side, due to the Captain’s finger slipping on the throttle lever. It was determined that the vibrations had been caused by the separation of the profile of a newly replaced tire. The investigation found that a maintenance error had caused weak glue on the tires to sever on the takeoff roll, most likely due to the heavy payload. Though this was determined as the main cause, interviews with the cockpit crew found that crews were not trained on anything else than engine problems during the take-off roll, leading to the pilots continuing the take-off but ultimately deeming the condition uncontrollable and aborting the take-off at 177kn, 15 knots above V1, with only 1295m (4,250ft) to spare.

The CIAIAC determined that the Captain’s actions were reasonable and recommended crews to be trained on other failures than engine malfunctions on take-off. The Committee also called for passengers to be briefed about the dangers of taking their bags along with them and for crews to be in close reach of safety equipment such as megaphones and flashlights.

Trivia
An audio-visual specialist at Pace University, Carlton Maloney, was recording audiotape during the accident as part of a series of recordings of airplane takeoffs and landings. As it became clear that something was going wrong, he began to report on the incident and its immediate aftermath.

In 2001, about 19 years after the crash Binter Mediterráneo Flight 8261 crashed in almost the same spot as Flight 995.