Spanair funerals, grief, questions

Across Spain, grieving relatives are burying some of the 153 victims of Wednesday's (August 20) plane crash in Madrid.

Across Spain, a grim cycle of grief, funerals, and questions in the aftermath of Wednesday's Spanair crash in Madrid.

Burying all 153 victims will take days.

Only 50 bodies have been released - DNA identity tests are being done on the others, badly burned in the crash.

Teams of psychologists from the Red Cross are tending to the bereaved, who demanded answers during an angry, emotional meeting with airline officials on Friday.

Ismael Rodriguez says he gives the Red Cross top marks for helping him deal with the loss of his best friend.

But others say they don't want grief counselling, they want technical experts to tell them what went wrong now, not in weeks or months.

As charred pieces of the wreckage are hauled away for forensic analysis, Spanish investigators are quoted as saying a chain of faults - rather than engine failure - likely caused the plane to crash on take-off.

A video that's surfaced is said to show the jet caught fire after it hit the ground - an engine did not explode as it was hurtling down the runway.

Aviation authorities won't comment on the video, beyond saying they've seen it.

In national newspapers, there are full-page notices from the airline commemorating the crew and offering condolences to the families and friends of the victims.

Spanair insists the plane was fit to fly and no short cuts were taken before it was cleared for take off from Madrid, bound for Las Palmas in the Canary Islands.

Susan Flory, Reuters