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A Fire and a Loud Explosion - 153 Dead in Spain's Worst Air Disaster in 30 Years

"The plane was on fire and then there was a loud explosion," that's how eyewitnesses described Wednesday's crash of Spanair Flight JK 5022. Reportedly, 153 people were killed when the jet went down shortly after takeoff.

The Spanair MD-82 jet was flying out of Barajas International Airport in Madrid, destined to the Canary Islands.

According to reports, a fire broke out on the jet's left engine, causing the aircraft to come crashing down less than one mile from the end of the runway. The incident occurred at approximately 2:45 p.m. local time. It's Spain's worst air disaster in the past 30 years.

Among its passengers, the flight was carrying four Germans, two Swedes, and one Chilean.Barajas International was closed immediately following the incident, but has since been reopened.

An AeroChannel investigation has discovered that the plane, registration number EC-HFP, was originally owned by Korean Airlines, and began flying in January of 1993. It was later acquired and registered by Spanair in July of 1999.

The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has sent its own team to the scene to aid in the investigation, due to the fact that the plane involved is American-made.

For more on the story, watch these video reports from UK and Spanish media:

BBC - http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/video_and_audio/default.stm

El Pais (Madrid daily newspaper) - http://www.elpais.com/videos/

Sky News (UK) -- http://news.sky.com/skynews/

TVE (Spanish TV network) -- http://www.rtve.es/