spanair flight jk5022 memorial solar panels

Anger over solar panels at Spanair crash memorial site

Outcry over photovoltaic panels at crash memorial

The president of the Spanair Flight JK5022 victims’ association, Pilar Vera, sent a tweet on Tuesday to the Minister for Transport, Óscar Puente, expressing her horror at the sight of photovoltaic panels surrounding the monument to the 2008 crash. The accident occurred on 20 August 2008 at Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas airport, when a Spanair aircraft carrying 172 people bound for the island of Gran Canaria crashed on take-off.

Writing on her X account, Ms Vera also noted that the Asae union has complained there is no external personnel monitoring the solar plant around the clock. Responsibility for shutting it down, she said, has been delegated to operations technicians at the Airport Management Centre, who are not Aena experts in this field.

Survivors could be electrocuted, warns campaigner

In a statement to the EFE news agency, Ms Vera explained that if a plane were to crash today in the same spot where the 2008 disaster unfolded – between runways 36L and 36R – and follow the same trajectory, it would hit the solar panels. “If they were operational, passengers would be electrocuted, as well as drowning in a small stream and being burned alive,” she said, pointing out that this was how the majority of those on board Flight JK5022 died. The accident claimed 154 lives and left 18 survivors.

Safety concerns for emergency services

Ms Vera also raised serious concerns about the safety risk posed by the panels, which she believes could hamper the work of emergency services in the event of another accident at the site.

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