First funerals held for Spanish jet crash victims

by julianw | August 22, 2008 at 06:33 pm

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A series of funerals were held on Friday for the victims of yesterday's Madrid plane crash, which killed 153 people. Spain will hold a national memorial service on September 1 in Madrid's Almudena Cathedral.

The first funerals for the victims of the Madrid air crash were held Friday as experts said a series of faults likely caused the Spanair jet to slam into the ground just after takeoff, killing 153 people.

Hundreds of people attended the funeral of Amalia Filloy and her 14-year-old daughter, also named Amalia, in the eastern town of La Fregeneda.

Her husband and 11-year-old daughter are one of the 19 survivors of Wednesday's crash, Spain's worst aviation accident in 25 years.

Amalia made headlines in Spain after a firefighter who was one of the first to arrive at the crash scene told reporters that she begged him to save her daughter first as she lay dying.

A funeral was also held in Spain's Canary Islands, the destination of the doomed Spanair flight, for a 27-year-old soldier and at a monastery near the northern town of Pamplona for a 61-year-old man.