Spanish airplane crash investigated

 In Spain, investigators continue to look into what might have caused a passenger jet to crash during takeoff killing 153 people. The jet, Spanair Flight JK5022, was carrying 172 people when it crashed at Barajas Airport in Madrid Wednesday afternoon. “The government will do all it can to support the families in this difficult situation. The whole government, logically, is affected, very affected, as are all Spanish citizens, by this tragedy,” said Spain’s Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero. Nineteen people, including two infants, survived the crash, according to Spanish Development Minister Magdalena Alvarez. According to survivors, passengers could hear an explosion as the plane was taking off. “They were about 200 meters [600 feet] in the air, and then they were landing but not crashing. They were landing, like, little by little; it was not like they [fell] down suddenly,” a reporter told CNN. One of the aircraft’s engines caught on fire, according to local officials. Since the jet’s engine was made in America, the United States National Transportation Safety Board will send an investigation team to look into crash causes, a spokesman said.

Algeria suffers two deadly car bomb attacks. Algerians are mourning the deaths of 50 people after car bomb attacks on consecutive days, reports CNN. On Tuesday, an explosion near a military school killed 43 people and wounded 38 in what’s being labeled a “terrorist attack,” said the nation’s interior ministry. Then on Wednesday, a car bomb attack outside of a hotel killed 11 people. No group has taken responsibility for the attacks yet, although the group al-Qaeda Islamic Maghreb has claimed responsibility for two recent blasts.

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