VIDEO: Spain Mourns, Jet Had Problems Before Crash

Relatives gathered at an improvised morgue in a convention centre to identify the bodies, many of which were badly burned.

Grieving relatives on Thursday tried to identify charred bodies from the wreckage of a Spanish jet, which officials said had been forced to abort a take-off earlier in the day at Madrid airport due to mechanical problems.

Airline officials declined to comment on possible causes for Wednesday's tragedy in which 153 people were killed, but said that Spanair Flight JK5022 had been delayed due to a problem with the air intake heating system before it attempted a second takeoff for its flight to Las Palmas in the Canary Islands.

"They supposedly fixed the problem which the pilot later said was with the air conditioning and then we took off," survivor Ligia Palomino told Ser radio.

"The plane was wobbling from one side to another. Then I began to suspect we would crash. I don't know what happened next. I was in a sort of river and saw people, smoke, explosions -- which I think woke me up."

Rescue workers said the only passengers to survive Spain's worst aviation disaster since 1983 were those who fell into a stream and avoided severe burning.

The government said only 19 people of the 166 passengers and six crew aboard survived the MD-82 jet crash. The airline listed 157 passengers and 10 unnamed crew. A Spanair spokesman could not account for the discrepancy in numbers.

Firefighter Francisco Martinez told Reuters that a wheel on his fire engine had caught fire in the extreme heat shed by the plane's wreckage as he tried to rescue survivors.

"I took a child into the truck and he thought he was in a film. But he asked 'When will this film end?' and 'Where is my Dad?'. He asked if it was real, if he was in a film, but he wanted the film to end," Martinez said.

Relatives gathered at an improvised morgue in a convention centre to identify the bodies, many of which were badly burned.

"I'd kill the bastard who did this," an angry driver shouted at television cameras outside the convention centre.

Development Minister Magdalena Alvarez said the condition of the bodies made identification very difficult.

"Those responsible say that it will take two days at the most to finish identifying people by their fingerprints. DNA identification will take a bit more," Alvarez told SER radio station.

A passenger list published by Spanair, owned by Scandinavian Airlines Systems (SAS), showed mostly Spanish names but the government said there were 11 nationalities on board including people from Sweden, Germany, the Netherlands and Chile.

Many were children, rescue officials said.

Madrid's regional government declared three days' official mourning and people gathered at the central Plaza de Cibeles square for a minute's silence at midday.

In Beijing, Spanish sailors Fernando Echavarri and Anton Paz wore black armbands when receiving gold medals in the Olympic Games on Thursday, after officials turned down a request to allow the Spanish flag to fly at half-mast.

"We are shocked and saddened by this accident," Spanair chief executive Marcus Hedblom told a news conference.

But he said he had no plans to ground his MD-82 fleet.

"We have to closely monitor the records but we see no reason to take such measures."

BROKE INTO PIECES

An official investigation into the crash got under way on Thursday but was not expected to report for several months.

On its second take-off attempt, the plane shot off the runway, broke into pieces and burst into flames.

Alvarez said the cause of the accident seemed to be "an error in take-off". A source close to the situation said the plane's left engine, made by Pratt & Whitney, had caught fire.

The president of pilots' union SEPLA told Reuters that pilots routinely practised taking off and landing in similar situations every six months.

"It's been years since engine failure on take-off or a fire has prevented a flight from continuing," said Jose Maria Vazquez, himself a Spanair pilot.

Spanair has been struggling with high fuel prices and tough competition. Hours before the crash, pilots had threatened to strike in protest at proposed cuts in staff and routes.

El Mundo newspaper reported that the co-pilot, who was among the dead, was on the list of those due to be laid off.

SAS has been trying to sell Spanair since last year and its Spanish unit lost $81 million in the first half of the year.

Hedblom declined to speculate on the airline's future.

The MD-82 is a medium-range single-aisle plane, popular with regional airlines. It is a member of the MD-80 family of planes made by U.S. manufacturer Boeing Co.

American Airline's fleet of MD-80s came under scrutiny earlier this year when the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration ordered the carrier to ground some 300 of the planes to inspect wiring in the right wheel well, which it said could be a fire risk if not properly covered and secured.