Uncertainty surrounds Spanair after crash and inconclusive investigation

Uncertainty and speculations is engulfing Spanair, after one of its planes crashed seconds before take-off at Madrid’s Barajas Airport earlier this week, killing 153 people. It recently emerged that the financially-troubled carrier’s pilot union planned to hold a strike mere hours before the fatal accident, and there has been speculation in the media that the labour dispute included concerns that union members had about safety issues. The Irish Times ran an article in which it argued that pilots had even written letters and memos to the carrier’s management, warning them of a number of safety concerns that they had. Most of these concerns stemmed from what the letter-writers referred to as “operative chaos.” According to a Bloomberg report, however, representatives of the Sepla union have contested these rumours, noting that their problems were with the airline’s management and possible redundancies, rather than safety issues. Spanair did, in fact, plan to cut as many as 900 jobs, in order to address the airline’s precarious state, after SAS-the parent company-was unable to sell it.

Major problems, however, remain for Spanair. The carrier has been struggling financially for some time, reservations cancellations are said to be up following the crash and confidence in the carrier appears to be badly shaken, especially since there is still no clear explanation as to what caused the crash. While most observers pointed initially to engine trouble, specialists now believe that this alone should not have caused such a devastating crash. All pilots receive training in what to do if they experience engine failure.

Thank you to the Irish Times and Bloomberg for the initial reports.