On the verge of 15 years since the accident of Spanair flight JK5022, in which 154 people died, a Movistar Plus documentary series investigates the causes of the catastrophe and denounces the gaps in the judicial process and the report of the commission of inquiry. Directed by Alberto Puerta and produced by Secuoya, Vuelo JK5022. The tragedy of Spanair reconstructs the events in three episodes based on testimonies of victims, relatives and specialists, in addition to material from the summary, reports of the commission of inquiry, transcripts of the cockpit recording of the plane and the audios of emergencies
The reconstruction of what happened on August 20, 2008 shows the mistakes made by the pilots, who died in the accident and were the only ones convicted in court, but also highlights the maintenance technicians and the slow and chaotic response by the authorities airport and emergency services.
The plane crashed a few seconds after taking off bound for Gran Canaria after a first takeoff attempt was aborted by a malfunction detected by the commander, the excessive heating of a probe RAT that the technicians, in conversation with the pilots, believed they solved without investigating the cause that caused it. The transcript of the conversations reveals that a cabin crew member, flight attendant Gabriel Guerrero, questioned the repair and assured that it was “a patch”, but the co-pilot insists that it “can be done”, in line with the manual of the device, an MD82.
In the documentary, the victims’ association, chaired by Pilar Vera, accuses the CIAIAC, the accident investigation commission under the Ministry of Public Works, of dilatory maneuvers – they took three years to present their conclusions – and ‘hiding relevant information that questioned the role played by the airline and the aircraft’s builders (McDonell Douglas, acquired by Boeing in 1996).
It concerns the failure of a relay responsible for both supplying electricity to the aircraft’s temperature probe heater and the improper takeoff warning system, called TOWS, which failed to operate, according to the association’s expert, Antonio Bazán, explained in his report.
Precisely, twenty years earlier, in 1987, an identical device of the Northwest company crashed in Detroit and caused the death of 155 people. The investigation revealed a similar origin to that of the Spanair crash, an electrical fault that prevented the TOWS alarm from sounding. The findings report recommended that Boeing modify the aircraft’s design to include a second alarm that would warn pilots of a possible TOWS failure.
This recommendation was never implemented and the
