Posted on 05/09/2015 8:35:51 AM PDT by Yo-Yo
LATEST: Confirmed information is scarce following the crash of an Airbus A400M outside the perimeter of Seville’s San Pablo airport. Casualty figures remain imprecise.
An aircraft, reportedly an Airbus A400M military transport aircraft on a test or trial flight, crashed just outside of Seville’s San Pablo airport at 1 p.m. Spanish time on Saturday, local media reported.
Álvaro Martín, editor of Sevilla Web Radio, told The Spain Report that locals know the aircraft type very well as it makes several low test flights around the area each morning: “people knew straight away it was one of the A400M”.
The Spain Report understands the aircraft in question was in its post-manufacture trial phase and had been sold to the Turkish Air Force.
The website FlightRadar24 reported the A400M appeared to have crashed shortly after take off.
Shortly before 5 p.m., the central government representative in Andalusia, Antonio Sanz, said four people had been killed and two seriously injured.
Spain’s Defence and Public Works Ministry had repeatedly refused to confirm or deny any details of the aircraft, the flight or the crew by 3:30 p.m., but a Defence Ministry spokesman explained to The Spain Report by telephone that the A400M model was not yet on active service with the Spanish Air Force and that Airbus test pilots are frequently former military pilots.
At 4:30 p.m., there was no confirmation of the total number of casualties—reports ranged from 7 to 10—their nationalities, or if they were civilian or military personnel. Europa Press, citing regional regional health authority sources, reported “three fatalities, one missing and two serious casualties”.
Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said there were “8 to 10″ people on board, and described the aircraft as ‘military’ in a tweet, contradicting the information provided by the Spanish Ministry of Defence.
A spokeswoman for AENA told The Spain Report by telephone that Seville airport was closed for over an hour as fire crews attended the crash site, but had been reopened at 2:50 p.m. after the firefighters returned to their station inside the airport perimeter.
Three incoming flights were diverted to Jérez and Málaga and five outbound flights delayed.
The Andalusian regional government activated its crisis plan at 1:23 p.m., emergency services reported.
A spokeswoman for the Ministry of Defence in the UK confirmed to The Spain Report that the Royal Air Force, which operates two A400Ms that: “we’re aware there has been an A400M crash in Seville and operations have been temporarily paused”, which means the aircraft have been grounded.
The Popular Party suspended its election campaign for the rest of the day, and cancelled a rally in Tenerife (Canary Islands) where Mr. Rajoy was due to speak on Saturday evening.
The party said in a statement that the suspension of the campaign had been agreed upon with the PSOE during a telephone conversation between Mr. Rajoy and Pedro Sánchez.
I was looking at this on Sky News, and it wasn’t a pretty sight. Airbus has had problems with the A400M, but until the investigation is concluded it would be difficult to know if the crash was caused by mechanical or pilot failure. (Hard to imagine it being terrorist-related, but it isn’t impossible.)
The airport in Seville is NE of the city. I wonder if the incoming flights were diverted to Cordoba or Gibralter; the latter would make aeronautical sense, but would cause political hassles.
Can carry about the same number of troops, but significantly less cargo weight.
...the latter would make aeronautical sense, but would cause political hassles.
And probably will into the future. Methinks Spain and England should play a game of cricket to decide the whole affair. Once and for all.
5.56mm
Neither:
"Three incoming flights were diverted to Jérez and Málaga "
That’s interesting; I wouldn’t have thought of Jerez, but looking it up it’s a bigger airport than I realized, and one or two extra flights wouldn’t dent their operations. Thanks
I got a full tour of a C-17A by a pilot friend about 10 years ago. Very cool airplane, good stuff. Said friend has a lot of hours going into and out of vacation spots such as Bagram and Baghdad.
Made me look up the Spanish cricket team (didn't know there was one), and there's practically no one Spanish on the team. No, it would have to be rugby.
You have got to be kidding me. Ok, then football ("soccer" for those in Rio Linda).
5.56mm
Clever. LOL
That’s a beautiful looking plane.
Notice the props spinning toward each other on each side.
He’ll have a lot of jet time when he gets out. Commercial aviation still seems viable.
I expect that is done to cancel the effects of engine torque which if they were all rotating in the same direction would tend to roll the aircraft longitudinally requiring constant correction.
Its the same reason helicopters have tail rotors, although the torque reaction is different from a fixed wing craft. If you lost the tail rotor the fuselage would try to rotate in the opposite direction of the main rotor. Big cargo copters with twin rotors counter-rotate and so can operate w/out tail rotors.
Regards,
GtG
There was a reason he suggested cricket.
Britain stole Gibraltar fair and square. Done deal.
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