Numbers are still being thrown around but CNN reports at least 21 people (out of a possible 164 on board) have lost their lives at Madrid airport when a Spanair (subsidiary of Scandinavian airline SAS and member of Star Alliance) aircraft came off the runway. It was flight Spanair 5022 and the plane that crashed was a McDonnell Douglas MD-82 .

SKY NEWS ARE GOING FOR AT LEAST 45 DEAD.

A Spanair aircraft of the same type. The MD-82.
Not the same one. But pretty similar, I’m sure.

Source: CNN

MADRID, Spain (CNN) — An aircraft heading to the Canary Islands came off the runway at a Madrid airport Wednesday, killing an undisclosed number of people and throwing up thick clouds of smoke.

Smoke could be seen rising from the end of the runway at Madrid’s Barajas Airport.

Spain’s two leading newspapers are reporting at least 25 people were killed in the incident, but CNN could not independently confirm those figures.

The office of Spain’s Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero told CNN there were fatalities, but did not release any figures.

Officials at Barajas Airport said the crash may have been caused by an engine on the Spanish budget airline jet catching fire.

The incident happened as Spanair Flight 5022 was taking off from the main runway, the official said. It was headed to Las Palmas in the Canary Islands, a more than two-hour flight.

[More here]

I’m watching it on CNN now and the presenter is on the phone to a witness and they’re pushing hard for the “so you say you heard an explosion?” angle.

Come now. Don’t force it.

She’s also asking, seemingly hoping, if it’s true that the death toll looks like it will be increasing. I can picture her rubbing her hands together, drool coming down her face.

With her mates all around her, whispering “pleasebeabomb, pleasebeabomb, pleasebeabomb, pleasebeabomb.”

Oh God, she’s just said “explosion” again..

** UPDATE (12 HOURS LATER) **

OVER 150 PEOPLE WERE KILLED ON THAT PLANE.