Spanair to lay off 90 pilots

Spanair to lay off 90 pilots

Spanair is to lay off 90 pilots as it looks to counter the global economic slowdown.

The airline, a Spanish subsidiary of Scandinavian airline SAS, agreed the job cuts with Spanish labour union Sepla. It is part of a plan to reduce operations in the Spanish destinations of Majorca, Tenerife, Alicante, Bilbao and Malaga and the Canary Islands.

Spanair has been hit hard by the global economic slowdown and higher fuel costs, while in August, more than 150 people died in the company’s worst air disaster in Madrid.

Wing flaps caused Madrid crash

Wing flaps caused Madrid crash

The Spanair jet that crashed in August had faulty wing flaps and a warning system that failed to sound, an initial report has found.

The MD-82 plane reached an altitude of just 12m (40ft) before flopping back down on to its tail and careering off the runway. It shot across 1km of scrub before falling into a ravine and bursting into flames at Madrid’s airport, killing 154 people on board.

The investigators’ preliminary report does not apportion blame, saying that the pilots carried out routine checks.

The investigators, who studied voice and flight data recorders, found no evidence of prior engine problems and concluded that the plane had caught fire only after hitting the ground.

It is unclear why the wing flaps failed to deploy, but the error was compounded by the failure of the cockpit alert system, which should have sounded a warning to the pilots.

A judge will now decide whether anyone can be held criminally responsible.