Aug. 20 (Bloomberg) -- A Spanair SA MD-82 jetliner broke up and caught fire after skidding off the runway at Madrid's Barajas International airport, killing 153 people in Spain's worst aviation accident in 25 years.

The single-aisle plane, manufactured by Boeing Co. unit McDonnell Douglas, crashed while attempting to take off for the Canary Islands with 172 passengers and crew on board, according to a statement from Spanair, a unit of Scandinavian carrier SAS Group. The left engine caught fire and dragged the plane off the runway, where it crashed, newspaper El Mundo reported.

Television pictures showed a column of smoke billowing from the runway and a helicopter dropping water on the crash site. Dozens of fire engines and police vehicles attended the scene following the accident at 2:45 p.m. local time.

``This is a horrible accident, a tragedy,'' Spanish Development Minister Magdalena Alvarez told reporters today in Madrid. She later said 19 people were injured, 17 of whom had been identified, according to Agence France-Presse.

The flight bore the number JK5022 and carried 162 passengers, six working crew members and four other airline employees, Spanair said in a statement. The service was also operating as a code-share with Deutsche Lufthansa AG under the flight number LH255. The Cologne, Germany-based carrier said seven passengers checked in with Lufthansa tickets for the flight, including four from Germany.

`Broke Apart'

``We were able to save more than 20 people scattered around outside the plane,'' Miguel Angel Perez, fire chief at Barajas airport, told radio station Cadena Ser. ``We found no survivors in the plane.''

The MD-82 ``broke apart'' after crashing on takeoff, the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board said in a statement, adding that it will assist in the accident probe. The plane was 15 years old and had an annual maintenance check on Jan. 24, Spanair Commercial Director Sergio Allard said at a press conference in the capital.

The sky was clear and temperatures exceeded 30 degrees Celsius (86 Fahrenheit) during parts of the Madrid summer day.

Standard & Poor's said in a note that Spanair, which SAS had been trying to sell, probably now has no future and that the parent company may itself face a class action, depending on the outcome of investigations.

`Next-of-Kin'

``SAS is doing everything possible to help passengers and next-of-kin and to assist Spanish authorities at this difficult time,'' the Stockholm-based company said in a statement.

SAS, which has suffered a series of incidents with its own fleet of Bombardier Inc. Q400 turboprops, fell 6.6 percent to 43.7 kronor. The stock has lost 47 percent this year.

Spanair has 36 MD-80 series aircraft in its fleet, according to the Palma de Majorca-based company's Web site. McDonnell Douglas was bought by Boeing in 1997, with MD-80 production ended in 2000, according to Airliners of the World.

``Boeing sends its deep condolences to the families and friends of those lost in the crash of Spanair flight 5022, and its wishes for the quick recovery of the injured,'' the Chicago- based company said in a statement. ``We stand ready to provide technical assistance.''

Carrying Out Probe

A probe will be carried out by the Spanish Comision de Investigacion de Accidentes e Incidentes de Aviacion Civil, or CIAIAC, Boeing said. The NTSB said it will send investigator John Lovell and four technical specialists to Madrid to assist.

The aircraft involved in today's incident was powered by engines manufactured by Hartford, Connecticut-based United Technologies Corp.'s Pratt & Whitney division, Pratt spokesman Matthew Perra said by e-mail.

The airport was closed for takeoffs after the accident before flights resumed at about 4:30 p.m.

The last fatal civilian crash in Spain was in February 1985, when a Boeing 727 crashed on approach to Bilbao airport, according to the Aviation Safety Network. All 148 people on board the aircraft were killed, it said.

Spain's worst air disaster killed 583 when two Boeing 747s collided at Tenerife North airport in March 1977. A KLM Royal Dutch Airlines jumbo taking off in fog hit a Pan American World Airways plane taxiing for its own departure. The flights had been diverted from nearby Las Palmas -- where today's Spanair service was headed -- due to a bomb warning and were making their way to that destination when the crash occurred.

Barajas Airport Accidents

Madrid's Barajas airport last suffered a fatal accident in December 1983, when a plane taxied onto the runway in the path of another taking off in heavy fog, killing 93 people. Ten days earlier, a Boeing 747-200 jumbo jet crashed on approach to the airport after hitting a hill, killing 181 of the 192 on board.

Barajas Airport, located about 10 miles (16 kilometers) north-east of the Spanish capital, is Europe's fourth-biggest airport and attracted 52 million passengers last year. It has expanded in recent years, doubling the number of runways to four and opening a new terminal designed by Richard Rogers.

SAS's Scandinavian Airlines grounded its Q400s in October after three crash-landings in six weeks involving faults with landing gear. The company said on March 10 it would receive compensation of more than 1 billion kronor ($157 million) from Bombardier and Goodrich Corp., which made the gear.

Some 118 people were killed in October 2001 when an SAS MD- 87 collided with a light aircraft during takeoff in thick fog at Milan's Linate airport. The SAS jet veered into a baggage- handling building where it burst into flames. Italian newspaper reports suggested the smaller plane had taken a shortcut across the runway.

To contact the reporters on this story: Paul Tobin in Madrid at ptobin@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: August 20, 2008 17:23 EDT