MADRID, Spain - A Spanish airliner bound for the Canary Islands swerved off the runway while departing from Madrid's Barajas airport Wednesday and caught fire, killing at least 45 people, the Interior Ministry said.
Another 19 were seriously injured and 25 slightly hurt, the ministry's office for the greater Madrid region said.
The ministry said there were 178 people aboard the Spanair flight. It is the height of the summer tourist season in Spain, when families take holidays throughout the country.
Spanair Flight JK5022 was bound for Las Palmas in the Canary Islands, a popular resort off West Africa, the company said. The plane was an MD-80, and it was a shared-code flight with Lufthansa's LH255, Spanair said.
At the airport, helicopters and fire trucks dumped water on the plane, which ended up in a wooded area at the end of the runway at Terminal 4. Thick columns of white smoke billowed from the scene. Dozens of ambulances raced to the scene.
An official with the Madrid emergency rescue service SAMUR said crews were removing injured people and bodies from the plane, calling it a "catastrophe." The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to give his name. - AP