text: Officials Investigate What Caused Madrid Plane Crash That Killed 153 | Fox News
  Officials Investigate What Caused Madrid Plane Crash That Killed 153
  MADRID, Spain – A gauge that indicated overheated air was entering a Spanair jetliner just under the cockpit forced pilots to scuttle a first attempt at takeoff, about an hour before the plane crashed in flames.
  But airline officials refused to speculate Thursday on what caused the crash that killed 153 people, and aviation experts said the gauge was probably not a factor.
  As investigators tried to reconstruct the last, hellish minutes of the MD-82's flight, relatives crushed by grief went to a makeshift morgue to identify loved ones. Officials said many of the bodies were burned beyond recognition.
  And then there was the Spanish couple who were three minutes late and missed the flight altogether. Ertoma Bolanos said he and his girlfriend Almudena checked in but did not make it to the gate in time. They learned of the crash when Magdalena's family called to say they had seen footage of it on TV.
  The MD-80 series aircraft have a number of static ports or pitot tubes — tiny holes — near the nose of the aircraft, with different functions. They provide data on air speed, air pressure, and outside temperature to the cockpit instruments. If the pitot tube or the static ports were somehow physically blocked, cockpit instruments such as the airspeed indicator and the climb indicator would be unable to function, since they would not be receiving outside data.
  The government on Thursday released a list of the nationalities of 19 foreigners from at least 11 countries who were on the plane. Of the 19, only one survived, a Swedish citizen. 1/4