Malfunctioning alarm system could have caused Spanair plane crash

by Yuliya Talmazan | September 16, 2008 at 10:53 am

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After official investigation, it was announced today that Spainair jet that crashed on August 20th, killing 154 people on board, had problems with wing flaps. The flaps were not set for take off, meaning the plane would not have been able to gain altitude. The warning alert that was supposed to have gone off to warn the crew about wing flaps problems was found to be malfunctioning. Investigators did not rush to say that the problem with wing flaps actually caused the accident.

The findings are based on information from the MD-82's flight and cockpit voice recorders.

The report said further study was needed of a malfunction of an air temperature gauge outside the cockpit, which forced the pilot to abandon a first take off attempt. Spanair called it a minor glitch resolved by turning off the gauge because it was not an absolutely essential piece of equipment.

But the Spanish investigators said that this might have had something to do with the failure of the cockpit alarm that is supposed to sound when a plane trying to take off is not properly configured.

A loud alarm should have gone off in the cockpit, but "the cockpit voice recorder registered no sound from the take off warning system," the report said.

The data recorder showed no evidence of problems with the plane's two engines.

Some of the 18 survivors have said the plane struggled to gain speed and altitude during takeoff. The report said the plane only got 40 feet off the ground.